The core curriculum
Eight modules between you and a surface that lasts.
This is the ground every Coatings Academy track covers. Read it before you book — it is the honest answer to what you will actually be doing all week.
Module 01
Module 01
Polyurea History & Chemistry
What polyurea actually is, how it differs from polyurethane and hybrids, and why that difference decides what you can sell.
Polyurea is the reaction of an isocyanate with an amine-terminated resin. It is fast, it is moisture-tolerant during cure in a way polyurethane is not, and it builds film in a single pass. Understanding the chemistry is not academic: it is what tells you why the material gels in seconds, why heat and pressure matter so much, why a hybrid behaves differently from a pure system, and why some jobs want one and not the other. We trace the material from its industrial origins to where it sits today across containment, infrastructure, truck beds, roofing and water.
- Pure polyurea, polyurethane and hybrid systems compared
- Why gel time drives everything about technique
- Where each chemistry belongs — and where it does not
- Reading a technical data sheet properly
Module 02
Module 02
Basic Material Processing
Temperature, pressure, ratio. The three numbers that decide whether what leaves the gun is a coating or a liability.
Plural-component material has to arrive at the mixing chamber hot enough, at pressure, and at the correct ratio. Get any one of those wrong and the film will look acceptable and perform badly. This module covers conditioning and handling material before it goes in the machine, setting primary heaters and hose heat, balancing A and B pressures, and recognising on the panel — not in a lab three weeks later — that a system has drifted off ratio.
- Material conditioning, storage and drum handling
- Setting heat and pressure to the data sheet
- Ratio verification and what off-ratio looks like
- Viscosity, ambient temperature and their effect on processing
Module 03
Module 03
Applicator Safety
Isocyanates, confined spaces, high-pressure injection and respiratory protection. The module nobody is allowed to skip.
Plural-component spraying carries real hazards: isocyanate exposure and sensitisation, high-pressure fluid injection injuries, solvent flash, and work in confined or poorly ventilated spaces. We cover selecting and fitting respiratory protection, skin and eye protection, ventilation and containment, safe handling and spill response, and the discipline of never putting a hand near a gun tip under pressure. Safety is taught first because it is the part of the job where one lapse ends a career.
- Isocyanate exposure, sensitisation and medical monitoring
- Respirator selection, fit and supplied-air systems
- Ventilation, containment and confined-space work
- High-pressure injection injury — prevention and response
Module 04
Module 04
Substrate Characterization
Concrete, steel, wood, foam, geotextile, existing coatings. Identify what you are actually standing on before you quote it.
Every substrate brings its own failure mode. Concrete carries moisture and laitance; steel carries mill scale and flash rust; wood moves; foam needs a compatible system; an existing coating may or may not be something you can bond to. This module teaches identification and testing — moisture, soundness, contamination, pH, adhesion of what is already there — so that the decision to coat or to walk away is made on evidence rather than optimism.
- Concrete moisture testing and the below-5% limit
- Steel condition, mill scale and flash rust
- Testing adhesion of an existing coating before overcoating
- Contamination: oil, salts, curing compounds and silicones
Module 05
Module 05
Surface Preparation
Profile, cleanliness and dryness. Where almost every coating failure is actually created.
Adhesion is bought at the preparation stage and nowhere else. We work through mechanical preparation — shot blast, grinding, scarifying, abrasive blast — and what profile each one produces, plus cleaning, dust removal, edge and crack detailing, termination details, and priming. You will prepare substrates by hand and then test what you prepared, which is the only way the lesson actually lands.
- Choosing a preparation method to hit the specified profile
- Edges, cracks, joints and terminations
- When to prime, and what primer the system calls for
- Verifying preparation instead of assuming it
Module 06
Module 06
Application Practices
Gun distance, angle, pass pattern, overlap and film build — the physical craft, learned with a gun in your hands.
This is the part that only comes from spraying. Correct standoff and angle, consistent travel speed, a disciplined overlap, how to handle inside corners and vertical surfaces, how to keep film build even across a large area, and how to recover when something goes wrong mid-pass. You spray, the instructor critiques, you spray again. Then you cut the panel and look at what you actually built.
- Standoff, angle, travel speed and overlap
- Vertical surfaces, corners and detail work
- Maintaining consistent film build over area
- Recognising dry spray, runs and sags as they happen
Module 07
Module 07
Applied Testing
Wet film, dry film, adhesion, holiday detection — proving the work rather than hoping for it.
A coating that has not been measured is a coating nobody can defend. We cover wet film gauges and when the reading is useful, dry film measurement on different substrates, pull-off adhesion testing, holiday and spark testing on linings where a pinhole is a failure, and keeping a record of conditions and readings as the job proceeds. The habit of documenting is as valuable as the testing itself.
- Wet film and dry film measurement in practice
- Pull-off adhesion testing and interpreting the break
- Holiday and spark testing for linings and containment
- Building a coating log that holds up later
Module 08
Module 08
Equipment Troubleshooting
Proportioners, heated hose, guns and transfer pumps — keep them running and fix them when they stop.
Downtime is the quiet cost of this business. We cover daily start-up and shutdown, flushing and lubrication, filters and screens, gun teardown and rebuild, mixing-chamber and impingement issues, seal and o-ring replacement, heated hose and temperature faults, pressure imbalance, and the routine maintenance schedule that prevents most of it. You will take a gun apart and put it back together until it is boring.
- Daily start-up, shutdown and flush routines
- Gun teardown, cleaning and rebuild
- Pressure imbalance and heater faults
- A maintenance schedule a crew will actually follow
Try it yourself
The check that prevents most coating failures.
Dew point and substrate moisture decide whether a job goes ahead. Move the sliders the way a real morning moves and watch the verdict change — this is the judgement call you will be making on site.
A teaching tool, not a substitute for a calibrated meter on the slab. ArmorThane publishes a concrete moisture limit of below 5% before spraying.
