Powder coating has certainly improved.

T

TangaraToo

RIP
Joined
17 Oct 2012
Messages
560
Visit site
Last time I looked the colors available for powder coating were limited.
One of the jobs on the list for this winter is smarten up the genoa winch. It's an old barlow which used to be chrome. My son offered to powder coat for me (he's an engineer with access to huge range of equipment :) )
and sent me a link to the powder colors.
The range these days is impressive.
http://www.electrostaticmagic.co.uk/pages/powders
 
I have some standards :o Decided on purple candy!
I'm sure he would take orders but the cost of getting heavy items to him (Northampton) probably wouldn't make it economical.
Plus he has mine to do and then modify the stainless diesel tank to include a hatch and possibly a sump. After that modify the tiller fitting to get it central, make a new engine panel, custom build a switch panel with engraved labels plus a few other jobs I haven't mentioned to him yet.
 
My wife works for a company doing engineering coatings, and one of the applications is for winches on racing yachts (think America's cup!). However, I think the cost of a one-off coating for a winch would be beyond most of our pockets - also, it only works on certain metals (aluminium alloy, magnesium, titanium)
 
All my used Barient self tailing ( ebay) have been black sandtex powder coated.

Cost about 20 UK pounds or less for the smaller ones.

Have to be surgically clean before powder coating ...

They are glass shot blasted before the electrical connection and spray is almost sucked onto them before they are baked.

Also had main hatch, aluminium doors with pre welded 1/2 and 1/2 stainless and aluminium bullet hinges

all powder coated white.

Oven takes up to 20 feet long

Have rebuilt winches, as above, they look new....sold on ebay at a profit although now in North America they seem few buyers on ebay sailing gear section.
 
How is the powder coating life when used on winches. On motocross bike frames it can last a while but eventually it wears away as expected. However, it wears noticeably faster, within a year, where the ankle part of my leather boots rub against the frame. So the shit hitting the frame lasts for years but the soft leather significantly less - would this be the same as sheets under tension and being slipped, winched in? At least with chrome the finish is very tough.
 
The Aluminium 'box' supporting the Morse control on our Jeanneau had to be recoated this winter as the original, from GOIT for Jeanneau didn't even last 3 years. The coating just fell off in lumps! (Jeanneau very unhelpful!)

Recoat cost £40.

PS Steering column now going the same way! Launched 2010!
 
Not an expert but I recently had some aluminium strips refinished by a local coating company and he said he wouldn't use powder coating in a marine environment. He blasted them, etch primed and then used some sort of 2 pack epoxy paint on them.
 
There are still many misunderstandings about powdercoating. I run a company part of which does powdercoating, over 100 tonnes a week of it.
A better name would be powder applied coatings, as there are many different types of coating available. Polyester is the most common, but epoxy, nylon, polyethelene, surylin, polypropylene, acrylic, antibacterial, antigraffiti, polyurethane and on it goes.

In Polyester, the most common chemistry, there are >250 colours available, in 5 different gloss levels with three different textures.

All powdercoating is porous. All paint is porous. Its the degree of porosity that varies, and different techniques are used to reduce porosity. That porosity is what affects performance as a corrosion reducer.

Like all coatings systems, its the preparation of the material being coated that has the biggest impact on performance, though there are also varying qualities of powder.
At the low cost, low performance end are names like "Trade Coat", and at the higher end are very high cost high performance powders.
A conversion coating chemical pretreatment is generally best (substrate material dependent), and in multiple stages.

If you're a buyer of this service of powdercoating, how will you know what you're getting? How will you know what to ask for? All powdercoating is not equal.

So here's a few simple questions you could ask.

1. What pretreatment will you use?
If they say nothing sensible, walk away. If they wipe it with thinnners, or gunwash, still walk away.
If they say they will shotblast, peen, bead blast or similar blasting technology, this is better.
If they have a chemical pretreatment, ask how many stages. If 1-2, be wary. If 3-9 stages, that's better, and the more the better.

2. What brand of powder will you use?
You can trust trade recognised brands, like Akzo Nobel, Axalta, Syntha Pulvin and some others. If its "Joe Bloggs supreme", or similar, be wary.

3. What grade of powder will you use?
If they have a quizzical look on their face, they probably were not aware that there were different qualities.
Taking Akzo Nobel as an example, if they say "Trade Coat", ask for a higher quality. If "Interpon D1036", that's better. If they say "Interpon 310" ask for better. If "D2525" say "yes please."
But how would you know all that? Actually you're really testing their knowledge. If they rattle off these names and seem to know what they're talking about and know the differences, that's what you want - someone competent. Their blank stare at this question is your warning.

Now liquid paints have all the same issues. What are you getting? What's in that can? What is it designed for, and how does it perform.
It's a minefield out there for the unwary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top