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DURABILITY OF POWDER COAT PAINT

WE ARE MANUFACTURERS OF MEDICAL GRADE EQUIPMENT AND UTILIZE POWDER COAT PAINT. HOWEVER I HAVE HAD SEVERAL CASES OF A PRODUCT COMING BACK FROM A HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT WITH RUST. WE SEND THE PARTS OUT FOR PAINTING BUT HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING IF THE PAINTING IS DONE PROPERLY....IS THERE A POWER COAT PAINT WHICH WILL ADHERE TO STEEL OVER FLASH RUST AND SEAL IT? ARE THERE DIFFERENT KINDS OF POWDER COAT PAINT WHICH WILL STAND UP TO WEAR?

CHRIS SCHOLZ
- ST. LOUIS, Missouri, USA
2002

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2002

Chris,

Your problem sounds familiar; some of our clients were more or less the same situation:

1. Is there any powder available suitable for hospital environment? Principally yes, but..... there are different types of hospital environments: When you are talking about the furniture like beds, these will be cleaned regularly in an industrial washer in which detergents and hot water, sometimes even steam is used. Rust starts often at those spots that aren't coated well, for example "hidden" spots where too little or even no powder is coming. Solution here lays more often in the construction of the part than in the quality of the powder used, When you talk about parts that go into a disinfectation unit (we once had a client that produced "tool-boxes" used in the operation theater)the circumstances during cleaning and disinfectation are even worse. Temps up to 140 C, full DI-water used etc. In these cases the right choice of the complete system - pretreatment + powder - is extremely important.

2. Is powder capable of adhering to flash-rust and sealing it? No. Sometimes it looks like it adheres and covers up completely, but in fact you don't have a good adhesion at those parts. If you put your part in the cleaning devices described before, any powder will fail

3. Not knowing wether the coating was done correctly? If you have a jobshop doing your coatwork, it is you that has to come up with the specs and/or the final quality you want to reach. It is also in your interest that you know enough about it to be able to check wether your supplier does his job OK. Sites like these can learn you a lot. Also you'll find in the consultants-section of this site a whole list of people who could provide you with all the info you need.

Good luck,

Remmelt Bosklopper
- Enschede, The Netherlands