EPOXY Manufacturers

mpe

mpe

New Member
Joined
21 Apr 2012
Messages
18
Visit site
Hello all, Can anybody answer a qeustion about epoxy resins?

I, and most people I know buy the "West System" epoxy and have never had a problem, they also provide an excellent web site with very informative free manuals.

My question is -

is West epoxy any different to the others, some of which are almost half the price?
 
West buy their epoxy stock in like most resellers, add different stuff and sell it on. There are supposedly only about 3 epoxy manufacturers world wide. Think along the lines of companies like Castrol oil who make their stuff from other peoples stock.
Find a brand you like and stick with it. I use FGI 180 in this country for laminating and glueing, just using different fillers for the job. The secret to using epoxy is accuracy in mixing. FGI is done by weight and electronic scales are very cheap these days.
 
mpe said:
Hello all, Can anybody answer a qeustion about epoxy resins?

I, and most people I know buy the "West System" epoxy and have never had a problem, they also provide an excellent web site with very informative free manuals.

My question is -

is West epoxy any different to the others, some of which are almost half the price?
Click to expand...

Most people buy West because it's the most widely available, in most chandlers in small packs.

I've used West, SP, Bote Cote and MAS. West & SP both have weird mix ratios, so mixing odd quantities or doing without the pumps is difficult. Both form a lot of "amine blush" which needs removing before overcoating - whether with more epoxy or primer / paint / w.h.y. Bote Cote is an Australian brand but very similar to MAS.

MAS has a 2:1 mix ratio, by weight or volume, has slow standard or fast hardeners available, which are blendable, doesn't blush and penetrates / wets out cloth better then West / SP.

There are definite differences, and I wouldn't use West unless I had a small job to do and needed to buy something from a local chandler. MAS is distributed in the UK by China Wind Yachts, and their governor (can't remember name) has practical commercial experience in using epoxy.

No connection other than satisfied customer.
 
I've never used West but I've never had any problems with (cheaper) stuff I get from Matrix mouldings in Bristol. I've also had very good advice from them which was probably worth a lot more than all the West leaflets.

FWIW I would be surprised if there was any significant difference between the resins. There will be differences between the various ancillaries and one system will achieve the desired result one way, another system will get the same result by a different route.
 
For general repairs to the cruiser I'm fine with East Coast Fibreglass's general purpose epoxy resin...it's cheap enough and will be much stronger than the polyester it was built with. It's holding my rudder together and also dealing with my rig loads and keeping my bulkheads attached to the hull so all good so far!

For repairs on skiffs/moths etc where maximum strength for minimum weight is paramount, I would tend to stick to SP or West. But that said precision of mixing, thoroughness of wetting out, consolidation and cure etc will be more influential in the strength of the final construction/repair than the price of the epoxy unless it's a really extreme, minimalist use.
 
mpe said:
Hello all, Can anybody answer a qeustion about epoxy resins?

I, and most people I know buy the "West System" epoxy and have never had a problem, they also provide an excellent web site with very informative free manuals.

My question is -

is West epoxy any different to the others, some of which are almost half the price?
Click to expand...
I am surprised if you find some half the price, unless you are looking at different quantities.. a 5kg pack is alot cheaper than 5*1kg packs. I ve been using SP and West. They mixing ratios are different (but dont mix the brands) so you need the respective pump to measure, but I didnt notice any difference in quality. West might be a shade darker. West might produce a bit more blush, but that might have depended on the weather on the day more than anything. In terms of bonding (rather than coating), I didnt find it an issue with either.
One thing.. mix very small volumes, or pour it into a tray. A bit of warm weather and even a few table spoons will start to go off in a cup pretty fast.
West do produce a very compehensive set of fillers etc, but generic stuff is fine I found, and very cheap in volumes. In fact I rather misaclculated that side of things !
Epoxy breaks down in UV, so it needs a top coat of paint or varnish or something, and it isnt flexible at all, so isnt ideal for all jobs.
 
mpe said:
My question is -

is West epoxy any different to the others, some of which are almost half the price?
Click to expand...

Yes. Better marketing.

Same with many other things - Sikaflex for example. There are technically equally good sealants made by companies as huge as 3M, but because of good marketing one brand becomes the most popular and sticks in people's minds.

Incidentally, I doubt that West actually make the epoxy as opposed to buying in bulk from some large chemical firm like |Dupont. But TBH I dont know that.

PS West epoxy being an older formulation is more prone to amine blush than more recent types like those from SP resins.
 
Just googles epoxy manufactures..
There a quite a lot of manufacturers producing a very wide variety of expoxies.. Many of these are for electonics, floor coverings, specialist injection mouldings. There are even expoxies designed for construction use..Some resins are designed for use at high tempraturs, others will cure at high temprature...

I found a floor covering epoxy at £10 /ltr..

However, looking at the various web sites it seems they do not deal with the small quantities needed by yachtsmen doing repairs Etc.. SP and West do provide small quantities, but they do seem very expensive!!
 
There might be only a handful of major manufacturers of epoxy world-wide, but there are thousands of formulations of epoxy resins. As a descriptive appellation, "epoxy" is about as useful as "weather": it comes in all sorts (including UV-resistant, to confound one popular conception).

West is brilliant, as others have noted -- for convenience, distribution and marketing, but at a price. And considering its propensity for amine blush in humid conditions, I can't think of a product less suited to UK conditions.
 
Tomahawk said:
Just googles epoxy manufactures..
There a quite a lot of manufacturers producing a very wide variety of expoxies.. Many of these are for electonics, floor coverings, specialist injection mouldings. There are even expoxies designed for construction use..Some resins are designed for use at high tempraturs, others will cure at high temprature...

I found a floor covering epoxy at £10 /ltr..

However, looking at the various web sites it seems they do not deal with the small quantities needed by yachtsmen doing repairs Etc.. SP and West do provide small quantities, but they do seem very expensive!!
Click to expand...

Hi there Tomahawk,
I suspect the list you got on Google are not manufacturers but seller who buy resin in bulk like many others and just their own additives.

All epoxies are a by product of the petrochemical industry, so produced by fuel refineries and sold in bulk. The last time I looked I could only find 4 refineries that had the capacity and equipment to extract epoxy resin base materials, and that was world wide.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 
Having built a couple of dinghies and lots of other projects I now only use Syntac EPAFD from Reactive Resins, I think it is a good all-round epoxy for use in the real world.

West is good to use but suffered amine blush quite badly in less than ideal conditions. However their technical info is good and they are helpful on the phone if you want advice.

PEC is fine does not blush as badly but a little viscous in less than ideal temperatures and also takes a longer time to set than others (and doesn't offer a fast or rapid resin option).

Whatever you go for it is worth buying a cheap set of electronic scales so you can measure out small quantities as required rather than using the pumps supplied by West, PEC, etc or using measuring cups. I'm sure my £9.99 Argos scales have paid for themselves many times over in the saving of wasted epoxy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top