OKS introduce new family of products for permanent corrosion protection

Maisach, Germany – 17 October, 2024: Years of pioneering research have enabled the development team at OKS Spezialschmierstoffe GmbH – leading experts in sustainable lubricants and chemical-technology maintenance products – to fully redesign their zinc spray product range for permanent corrosion protection. In comparison to previous OKS products and similar products from the competition, the company have succeeded in improving corrosion protection many times over. Their products are also setting new standards with regard to work safety.

The global market for corrosion protection coatings is estimated to be around 26 billion US Dollars. Thanks to their ease of use and range of applications, zinc sprays make up a large product group in this market. The OKS development team have succeeded in achieving significant improvements in terms of performance, work safety and sustainability in this technically advanced group of products. This success can be attributed to the capacity for innovation, problem-solving skills and expertise of the Freudenberg Group's experts.

During the development process, the primary focus of the team led by OKS technical director Joscha Klusmeier lay on chemistry. Among other things, aromatic solvents representing a considerable hazard to users were replaced with non-aromatic solvents. "Because of the volumes involved, we used to focus on product concepts where we only had a limited influence on active ingredients and basic formulations.

Increasingly, though, they failed to meet Freudenberg Group standards with regard to performance, work safety and the environment. That's why we decided to develop completely new products in this high-revenue market segment, where we reviewed, harmonised and redesigned every active ingredient component," said Klusmeier in explaining their product development history.

The new product range comprises a total of four products which are all fully compatible in use with one another. Additionally, minor damage is able to repair itself thanks to the product's self-healing property.

OKS 2551 is a classic zinc protection spray for initial coating build-up which offers active, cathodic long-term corrosion protection. With a coating thickness of just 70 μm, more than 2,000 hours of protection are achieved in the salt spray test in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9227, which corresponds to 25 years of protection as per the DIN EN ISO 12944-2 standard (corrosivity category C5). For comparison, a conventional zinc spray with the same coating thickness doesn't even last for 1,000 hours. This means that the new product from OKS offers two to three times greater corrosion protection than similar products. As a matter of fact, curing the product through baking will even increase its level of protection to five to ten times that of conventional zinc sprays. Thanks to this significantly longer-lasting protection, fewer re-coats are required, resulting in less material use over the long term.

The new OKS 2561 zinc-aluminium protection product also boasts more than 800 hours of protection, far exceeding values previously seen in the industry. The same can be said for two products with decorative corrosion protection featuring an aluminium or stainless-steel appearance: OKS 2571 and OKS 2581. These two products achieve excellent corrosion protection results even without a primer such as OKS 2551, but can also be used as a second coat on top of the zinc base spray.

OKS 2571 and OKS 2581 can be applied wet-on-wet in combination with OKS 2551. This shortens processing time significantly and enables optimal adherence of the two coatings to one another. Together with their enhanced protective effect, this makes them ideal products for professional assembly work, where holes, weld seams or damaged areas on galvanised and hot-dip galvanised surfaces need to be protected against corrosion quickly and reliably in a single step. The sprays can also be used to prime ferrous metals if they can't be galvanised.

OKS see the new zinc sprays primarily being used in steel construction, chemical and energy plants, municipal services and air conditioning technology and, increasingly, in marine and offshore applications.

By eliminating the use of aromatic solvents like toluene and xylene, the new family of products are much less likely to represent a hazard. In addition, all products are no longer labelled with the GHS-08 health hazard pictogram thanks to the elimination of H373 (target organ toxicity resulting from repeated use). This means that the new OKS corrosion protection products will contribute to the substitution obligation stipulated in the German Ordinance on Hazardous Substances over the medium term. In the case of H373, the introduction of new standards oblige employers to switch to new products which are less likely to represent a hazard so as to protect employees.

With their new family of products, OKS are further expanding their expertise in active work safety & environmental protection and their product share where critical ingredients are replaced with non-critical ones, application safety is systematically increased and new standards in performance are set nonetheless.