Due to the strong toxicity of TGIC and its impact on the environment and human health, many countries and regions around the world have already begun to resist its application, especially in Europe, where all factories producing TGIC have been closed. At the same time, the alternative to TGIC, HAA with lower toxicity, is highly favored. In 2003, HAA began to replace TGIC as a curing agent for weather resistant powder coatings.

Undoubtedly, the world's largest HAA supplier is EMS-PRIMID, whose product PRIMID XL-552 is well-known in the powder coating industry. Of course, there are several companies in China currently engaged in the production of HAA, such as Ningbo Nanhai and Wujin Niutang. However, due to the patent protection of EMS company, they are unable to sell in some countries and regions with patent protection. Nevertheless, more and more Chinese companies are starting or preparing to produce HAA. The reason is simple: with the development of the economy, countries and regions have become increasingly aware of environmental protection, and HAA has lower toxicity, so it is naturally sought after by people.

However, currently, the application of HAA in powder coatings is still quite limited. According to our investigation, powder coating manufacturers in Chinese Mainland do not use HAA in large quantities for the following reasons:

When preparing high gloss powder coatings, the surface gloss of the coating cured with HAA is not as high as that of TGIC system

There are still some issues with the application of polyester resin that is compatible with HAA

HAA system is not suitable for thick coating

HAA's resistance to yellowing is not as good as TGIC's

These are the issues that users have reported more frequently, and of course there are other reasons as well. But the fundamental reason should be that people have become accustomed to using TGIC, even when trying HAA, they still use TGIC as a reference standard, which is called preconception.

Based on the above reasons, the application of HAA in China is greatly limited. According to the statistics of the Coating and Coating Professional Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society, in 2004, the polyester TGIC system accounted for about 17% and the polyester HAA system accounted for about 4% of the variety structure of powder coatings in China; In 2005, the polyester TGIC system accounted for about 23%; Polyester HAA system accounts for about 4%; In 2006, the polyester TGIC system accounted for about 27%; The polyester HAA system accounts for about 6%. It can be seen that in the current Chinese powder coating market, TGIC's market share is much larger than HAA's.

This situation is not only happening in China, but also in the vast majority of countries and regions that produce powder coatings. We have visited customers in more than ten countries and regions, including the United States, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and South Korea. When we recommended our T105 to customers, most of them did not show much interest because they felt that if they changed the curing agent, they would have to replace the polyester, which was a troublesome thing. However, the TGIC they used could already meet their needs and they were used to it, so they were not willing to accept HAA products. As far as we know, EMS-PRIMID company has been committed to the development of the US market in recent years. Although it has achieved some results, some manufacturers have started to use RPIMID XL552 in small quantities, but at the same time, it has encountered great resistance because TGIC is also the mainstay in the United States, and many powder manufacturers are unwilling to replace or only replace in small quantities.

On the contrary, Europe and Australia are more inclined towards the application of HAA, perhaps due to their high environmental requirements and public awareness. The usage of HAA in these two regions exceeds TGIC, and the annual usage of HAA in Europe is around 4000 tons and continues to grow.

Although the application of HAA is currently greatly limited in many countries and regions, its development requires a process. It cannot be denied that the application of HAA in powder coatings has significantly improved compared to before.