In any new industry, the perspective and bias tend to be set by the
founders of that industry. This has been shown time and again
throughout history. Transitions to new approaches that suggest either
improving or changing the founders’ inventions can be difficult, at
best. For this reason, individuals with a background in hot-spray may
be reluctant or even resistant to look at alternative polyurea
application or equipment approaches. Individuals who have broken away
from the hot-spray bias by cold-spraying polyurea are frequently
forced, by the hot-spray veterans, to defend their position.
The facts of the matter are three-fold. First, polyurea systems applied
with hot-spray generally do exhibit superior physical properties to
systems applied with cold spray. It should be pointed out, however,
that this may be because most existing polyurea systems were
specifically formulated to be applied with hot-spray equipment and have
needed modifications to work with cold-spray equipment. Secondly,
polyurea systems specifically formulated for cold-spray application or
for both hot-spray and cold-spray application can and do all exhibit
outstanding physical properties. Third, in order for the polyurea
industry to mature, it must be understood that there is a proper place
and room for hot-spray, cold-spray, and the recently emerging
warm-spray.
|