Hempel is one of the leading manufacturers of paints in the Arabian Gulf, supplying decorative paints for many different types of applications, ranging from a single private villa to the largest commercial projects.

Architectural coatings serve two purposes, to provide decoration and to protect a building from the effects of weather and pollution. Hempel's Contex has been developed specifically to protect buildings and other structures which are constructed using steel reinforced concrete.

Concrete Degradation

Without appropriate protection, reinforced concrete is susceptible to attack from chemicals within the environment. The effects are:

Carbonation: When atmospheric gases, such as carbon dioxide, permeate through concrete, these acidic gases react with the highly alkaline pore water causing carbonation. This carbonation reduces the alkalinity of the concrete, which normally protects the steel reinforcement bars from corrosion, and corrosion begins.

Chloride intrusion: Chlorides may enter the concrete from a number of sources, from Marine spray, fog or mists or from industrial gases. Once the chloride ions permeate the concrete an electro-chemical reaction takes place causing corrosion of the rebars.

As corrosion takes place as a result of carbonation and chloride intrusion, the steel expands causing the concrete to crack. Unless expensive corrective action is taken, full structural failure could occur.

Contex is a unique paint developed by Hempel to protect concrete buildings and structures that rely on steel reinforcement bars to provide structural strength.

The result of many years of research and development, Contex protects reinforced concrete by: