Powder coating is the process you use to apply a coating without using solvents. This is the newest coating technique in the industry right now. You usually apply this type of coating to create a hard finish on metals and because it allows you flexibility to apply on a different layers of thickness. You would see this finishing in materials such as aluminum, medium density fiberboards, fusion-bonded epoxy and acrylics, usually on automobile finishing.
To produce the powdered finishing, polymer granules are mixed with pigments and powder ingredients. The mixture is heated in an extruder. It is then cooled and rolled flat before being broken into pieces. The chips are then milled to be produced as powder. Given that you can mix any type of pigment into the mixture, the colors you can produce are limitless.
To apply powder coating on an object, you could heat either thermoplastic or a thermo-set polymer material powder and the finishing would make it stick to the usually metallic surface. This may sound like a very tedious process, but what you can do is actually use an electronic gun to spray the powder. The gun gives an electronic charge to the Read the rest of this entry »
