Patent ID: 7585902

Claim:
A method of providing immediate and long-term antimicrobial efficacy combined with long-term durability to a substrate that, in use, is subject to high wear or highly errosive conditions comprising: (a) mixing an antimicrobial agent with a curable base coat coating formulation (b) applying the modified curable base coat coating formulation to a surface and allowing it to cure; (c) mixing an antimicrobial agent with a curable top coat coating formulation; and (d) applying the curable top coat formulation to the surface of the cured base coat and allowing the top coat to cure; wherein the base coat, when cured, is a non-hydrophilic material and the top coat, when cured, is either (a) a hydrophilic material having water absoption at equillibrium of at least 2% by weight, other than a polysaccharide or hyaluronan, or (b) a non-hydrophilic material that is either (i) skin forming, provided that the antimicrobial agent is in particle form and the thickness of the top coat is such that an adequate number of particles of the antimicrobial agent are not skinned over so as to preclude the presence at the surface of the top coat of an antimicrobially effective amount of the antimicrobial agent, or (ii) non-skin forming with respect to the antimicrobial agent; and wherein said inorganic antimicrobial agent is an antimicrobial metal or metal ion containing agent and is ineffective in providing antimicrobial bioefficacy at the coating surface while entombed in the non-hydrophilic base coat; and wherein said cured non-hydrophilic base coat is thicker than and has long-term durability as compared to the top coat.