Patent ID: 8067486

Claim:
An aqueous multi-component epoxy coating composition curable upon admixing the components and comprising: (a) a first component comprising: (i) a stable epoxy dispersion comprising a mixture of an epoxy resin and a low temperature nonionic surfactant, a high temperature nonionic surfactant, and an anionic surfactant which, in combination with the low temperature surfactant and the high temperature surfactant, reduces the interfacial tension value of the epoxy resin as compared to the interfacial tension value of the epoxy resin in the absence of the anionic surfactant; wherein the low temperature nonionic surfactant is characterized by having a molecular weight of not less than 1,000 and not more than 7,000, the high temperature nonionic surfactant is characterized by having a molecular weight of greater than 7,000 and not more than 20,000, and at least one of the following criteria is met: (aa) the weight-to-weight ratio of the high temperature nonionic surfactant to the anionic surfactant is greater than 3:1; (bb) the weight-to-weight ratio of the sum of the low temperature nonionic surfactant and the high temperature nonionic surfactant to the anionic surfactant is greater than 4.5:1; (cc) the total surfactant concentration is 5 to 20 weight percent, based on the weight of the total surfactants and the epoxy resin; and (b) a second component comprising: (i) a water miscible polyamine and wherein the composition also comprises an associative thickener and an additional thickener selected from the group consisting of a thixotropic clay and a cellulosic thickener and mixtures thereof; and wherein the composition has less than 3% by weight of VOCs.