What Is Powder Coating?
Powder coating is the technique of applying dry paint to a metal substrate. The final cured coating is the same as a 2-pack wet paint. In normal wet painting such as house paints, the solids are in suspension in a liquid carrier, which must evaporate before the solid paint coating is produced.
In powder coating, the powdered paint may be applied by either of two techniques.The item is lowered into a fluidised bed of the powder, which may or may not be electrostatically charged, or The powdered paint is electrostatically charged and sprayed onto the substrate.The part is then placed in an oven and the powder particles melt and coalesce to form a continuous film.There are two main types of powder available to the surface finisher:Thermoplastic powders that will remelt when heated, and Thermosetting powders that will not remelt upon reheating. During the curing process (in the oven) a chemical cross-linking reaction is triggered at the curing temperature and it is this chemical reaction which gives the powder coating many of its desirable properties.
Power Coating Process
In today’s metal finishing industry. quality and efficiency are of equal value to the customer. Quality is important for obvious reasons; efficiency is desired because it keeps prices down and results in short lead-times for customers. Orders often must be coated and shipped the same day, so scheduling, efficiency,
and quality are critical. Reworking is not an option, and time is of the essence.
Coating procedure consists of the following stages: Chemical pre-treatment process consisting of 8 steps:
- Degreasing Tank
- Water Rinsing
- Acid Etching
- Chrome free
- Water Rinsing
- Di Water
- Heating Dryer
After pretreatment the substrates are then loaded on the conveyor where it gets coated with electra-statically charged powder of the desired color. Once this is done the substrates. go through curing oven at a temperature of 2000 degrees C for 10 — 15 min. according to the powder specification. Under the influence of heat a thermosetting powder goes through 4 stages to full cure. MELT, FLOW, GEL, CURE Our ultramodern facility is composed of 10 tanks each of dimension: 8 mtr. length x 1.0 mtr. width x 2.5 mtr Depth Our coating booths and powder curing oven can accommodate sizes ranging from 0.7 mtr. Width to 2.1 mtrs. Height. The final process is to ensure the quality of the products through visual inspection and laboratory tests according to the ‘Oualicoar standards, then packaging with polyethylene film to protect the coating film.
Benefits of Powder Coating
- Doesn't scratch
- Doesn't fade
- Doesn't rust
- Tough
- Durable Attractive
- Colorful
- Non-toxic
- Unfazed by
- Rain
- Hot sun
Hundreds of powder coating colors
Powder Coating is Environmentally Friendly
The powder coating process itself offers another advantage – it is environmentally friendly . . virtually pollution- free! Unlike the liquid paint used in a typical spray painting process, there are riot any solvents used in our powder coating process – so only negligible amounts of volatile organic compounds, or VOC’s, if any, are released into the atmosphere during the powder coating process. Additionally, powder coating does not contain carcinogens like spray paint. Moreover, unused or oversprayed powder is always recovered, not released into the atmosphere, so any waste is negligible and can be disposed of easily, safely, and in an environmentally friendly way.
- Powder Coating contains no VOC's or volatile organic compounds
- Powder Coating does not contain carcinogens like spray paint
- Powder Coating is virtually pollution-free!
- Unused or oversprayed powder is captured and not allowed to release into the environment