Is Powder Coating Suitable for Your New Product Line?

If you're involved in a manufacturing operation and may be preparing to launch a new product line, you may be figuring out how to prepare the individual units for final sale. You may be wondering how you can treat these units so that they not only look good but are durable for their intended purpose and may be thinking about powder coating to help you achieve your goals. Is this type of approach good in all situations and what do you need to know to help you make your decision?

Metals

This type of application is most commonly used to treat metal and in particular brass, stainless steel and steel. These are relatively easy to treat because the metal can be electrically grounded in most cases, which automatically prompts the powder to "cling" to the metal that's being painted, due to its static properties.

Nonmetals

However, when treating nonmetals (and in the case of aluminium) you need to bring the surface up to a certain temperature before applying the powder coat. When the coating touches the material, it will effectively melt due to the heat, rather than clinging to it through static electricity.

Glass

If your product is made from glass, you may be wondering if powder coating is an option. In this situation you can apply the coating to pre-heated glass which does very well under heat, of course and it will cure quite quickly. Therefore, you can use this type of coating on a variety of different ceramic products, such as kitchenware.

Wood

Wood-based products can be a little bit trickier, as you do have to worry about excessive heating past the point where the wood will spontaneously ignite. However, many types of wood can be treated quite successfully to the temperature that's ideal for curing with powder coating. This will be very beneficial if you are producing products that need to be particularly hardy, as normal paint might crack during use.

Is It Right for You?

Essentially, you need to determine whether your product can be heated to the correct temperature before the coat is applied, if it is not primarily metal-based. You should bear in mind that you're likely to get a more even finished appearance when applying to a metal surface that non-metal and would require an especially trained operative to get the best quality result in this case.

Have a word with an expert in this application to see what kind of result you could get with your project.

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