It’s prime time for Sika!

By Emma Peterson. 

From waterproof coats to conductive primers, Sika is developing the future of liquid-applied membranes. 

While at the 2024 International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC) convention in March, Heidi J. Ellsworth got the chance to talk to Sean Fraker of Sika Corporation. Sean was excited about the presentation they brought to the show! He explained, “We started off with liquid applied membrane. Then we introduced a new conductive primer to go with our liquid membrane systems.” This conductive primer is especially innovative because it’s a high voltage system that does not require an additional primer when it’s dry.  

Then, as part of an introduction for Sika’s acquisition of UGL company, there was a presentation about a basement primer. Sean explained, “So Roger Nord was up here from UGL and he did a presentation with a wet cement block and took an acrylic coating and immediately coated it.” This product is designed to keep basements dry and allows owners to put a layer of latex paint overtop the primer. They also had their PVC Roofing group, the Sarnafil group, present a new thermo-chromatic weld. Sean explained, “Basically when you're running the welder over the top of the single ply seam, it indicates whether or not the weld was done properly at the right heat. For those of you that don't remember the Coors’ beer can, it used to be that if you got it cold enough, the mountain turned blue. Same principle.”  

The last big thing they introduced was their new primer for Kynar metal. Sean described the product, sharing, “We've now got a primer that allows us to use our liquid membrane and the roofing membrane on top of Kynar metal without removing the Kynar finish.” Overall, Sean and the team at Sika were excited and happy to be at IIBEC. He explained, “We've got everything from all the building envelope products, including marine and automotive. So marine and automotive aren't here, but almost everybody else is here. We love talking to them all and showing off what we’re working on.” 

Watch the full interview to learn more about Sika and their new products! 

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