 This has only been painted from one side |
Electro static Powdercoating |
| Powder coating has been the fastest growth area of the painting industry since 1992. The paint is purchased and applied as a powder unlike liquid painting, where the pigment and resin are dissolved in a solvent, e.g. water or cellulose thinners. The individual granules of powder are given an electro-static charge, and in the same way as rubbing a balloon on your jumper and then watching it stick to the wall, the powder is attracted to the work piece. It is then placed into an oven set to approximately 200C where the powder melts and turns into a liquid and looks like a normal paint. |
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| How is powder coating applied The powder is placed onto a fluidized bed, (A box containing the powder where air bubbles through it.) The powder travels through a tube from this bed to the gun, where it brushes past an electrode with a 100,000-volt potential, where it forms a cloud of powder. This electrode ionizes the air, and negatively charged ions attach themselves to the powder giving them an overall negative charge. Any thing within range of the cloud that has a neutral or opposite charge attracts the charged powder. If a tube is painted it attracts a coating all around it, due to the wrap around effect. The whole object is painted before it is passed into the oven. |
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