Complete Guide to Powder Coating

If you  are building or restoring a car, you have three choices for refinishing the various parts involved: painting, plating, or powdercoating. Powdercoating may seem new and cutting edge but it’s actually been around for over 40 years. Once used just for industrial equipment, today it’s become a very popular option for getting a durable and good-looking finish on car parts.

How powercoating works

As the name implies, powdercoating is a coating initially applied as a powder, as opposed to traditional paint, which is a pigment suspended in a solvent. Thepowders used are made up of epoxy, polyester, and acrylic resins.  There is some impressive chemistry involved, but in short, colored dust is stuck to a metal base and melted to form a coating.As the colored dust passes through the paint gun, it’s given a low-voltage electrostatic charge. The part being painted are given a negative charge so the positively-charged colored dust particles are attracted to the metal surface where they cling on like magnets do.
How thick the powder coats the surface of the metal depends on the how much voltage is used on the system. At some point the powder thickness inhibits more particles from sticking, which is why it’s self-leveling. Once the powder is on the part, it’s baked in an oven (typically between 350 and 400 degrees F) where the powder coating chemically reacts to produce long, rugged molecular chains.  The result is a finish that is much harder and chemical resistant than traditional paint. Read More :TopCarsPicks.com