What is Amine Blush?
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Modern epoxies v tradional older style blushing or waxing epoxy
Firstly we need to identify what is blushing or waxing. Blushing /waxing is a result of a chemical reaction within the older style epoxies which forms a a amine wax or blush on the surface of the epoxy as it cures. This waxing or amine blush needs to be removed before any other glueing
,painting or other coating can be applied. One of the dangers in removing this wax is that it can come back again after cleaning if the epoxy has not fully curred, this will cause any paint or finish coat to lift ( a little like sunburn skin peeling off) or will cause any subsequant glue joint to fail.
Amine blush or wax can be removed with laquer thiners washing with a dilution of water and mild acid or acetone . All of which have their problems and cause a mess which needs to be cleaned before moving on to the next step in your project which has cost a substainal amount of time to
clean back to a surface that can be used.
The other alternative is to use a modern non blushing epoxy. MAS low vis and flag come with three hardeners all of which are non blushing. This means there is far less labour in applying the epoxy, no clean up no mess, it also means you can apply another coat or glue a lamination on while the project is still wet giving a chemical bond which is better than a physical bond that you would have from older epoxies where you have had to wait for full cure then cleaned down and sanded before you can continue.
Blushing systems are very much cheaper than non blushing systems so if you want to save money and are prepared to put in the extra time and money into the clean down process then the 5 to 1 and 3 to 1 systems on the market are the way to go. These include MAS traditional.WEST. SP. and others. If you want to progress with your project and you want to cut down on the labour and cleaning which all cost money and you want a easy use customer friendly system then go with MAS non blushing system, it will be cheaper and quicker in the long run.