Patent ID: 7442726

Claim:
A method of coating an article to form a simulated stone coating, which comprises (1) forming a fluid composition comprising (a) crosslinkable liquid resin matrix, wherein the resin is an unsaturated polyester or an unsaturated acrylic resin having distributed therein (b) a crosslinked particulate resin granule containing an inorganic filler, visually differentiable from the matrix resin and having substantially the same density as the matrix resin and (c) a crosslinking accelerator, based on the weight of the total composition, comprising (i) 0.1 to 2.5% of an alkali metal carboxylate or a calcium hydroxide or carboxylate, wherein the carboxylate moiety has from 6 to 22 carbon atoms, (ii) from 0 to 2.5% of a heavy metal carboxylate, wherein the carboxylate moiety has from 6 to 22 carbon toms, and wherein the metal is cobalt, copper or zinc and (iii) from 0.1 to 2.5% of a N,N′,N″ trisubstituted amine or a N,N′ disubstituted amide or mercaptan selected from the group consisting of glycol, trimethylolpropane- and pentaerythritol-mercaptopropionates and mercaptoacetates, (2) adding an initiator and applying the resulting composition at ambient temperatures to a substrate.