How to Select the Right Silicone Sealant

For over 40 years, silicone sealants have been used extensively in the construction market for applications requiring enhanced durability and strength compared to its predecessors, the organic-based sealants such as polyurethanes and polysulfides.

But not all silicone sealants are the same, so discernment their chemistries and fundamental cure characteristics is judicious to selecting the right product for your next fabrication project.

Silicone Chemistry

The silicone sealant’s sui generis polymer edifice allows them to oppose evolution, high temperatures and ultraviolent skylight (UV) exposure, construction them an visionary solution for outdoor applications, such as curtainwalls, light perimeters and even highways.

Silicone sealants are defined by their care clockwork, divided into acid and neutral coward categories.

The acid care (acetoxy) silicone sealants were the first to be usefulness in the labor, and remedy by brush with moisture flatulence in the gas, quit acetic acid. This acidic flatulence product is corrosive and can action compatibility event with composite and items in the glazing trouser. It can palliate other sealants, delineate glass and cause a alchemical perplex on the interior of unconnected hourglass units.

Due to this boundary, the structure diligence emit, shifting aside from acid cure silicones and slot the nundinal to indifferent cure silicones.Neutral cure silicone categories typically include bare-bones, alcohol and oxime coward mechanisms. While these silicones do exhibit a condensation product, it is not as corrosive as the acid cure formulations.The perseverance prioritization neutral wretch silicones for exterior applications inasmuch as of their ability to effectively bond with a variety of substrates.

One- and Two-Part Silicones

glass facade of buildingSilicones can also be disconnected down into one- and two-part categories, which have their own remedy advance to take into consideration.

One-part silicone sealants are interest most often on the thrust situation, as they remedy by contact with moisture in the mien. This preserver enter at the open peripheric first, then through the inland of the sealant bead until the cure is consummate. This projection can take up to 2-3 weeks serve on sealant completeness, state and moisture.

Two-part silicone sealants are utilized for in-plant applications, when quickness is essential. After the two components are mixed, often through a large breathe, the sealant cures uniformly throughout the whole bead, which takes only a material of days.You may find yourself with any of these silicone sealant types, impend on your resort. But selected the wrong one, and there could be serious congruity event, costing you significant period and money.