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Using the molten zinc kettle to strip powder coatings

2003

Dear Sirs,

Some times we use our kettle to remove paint from some parts that came for galvanizing with a short immersion on the Zinc. Right now we have to make a reprocess from our powder coating plant, and we have tried to burn the powder coating in the Zinc. It works pretty good. I want to know what could happen to the Zinc if we do these burnings in our galvanizing facility. What risks are we taking?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Juan Carlos Sanin
Galvanizer, Powder Coater - Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia

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Hi Juan,

The burning process that you mention, works very well alright. Also it is much more effective than trying to blast the powder coating away from the surface. Your company takes no risk by burning the coating off in the kettle, as the burned coating ends up as ash floating on top of the molten zinc!

Poul Søndergaard
- Denmark
2003

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Hi,

Any ideas on what methods to be used to de-coat a powder coated component? We sometimes need to do it if we detect instances of adhesion failure in a lot. Also the component is Hot dip galvanized, any way to do it without damaging the zinc layer beneath?

Dipesh Gupta
Fabrication, Finishing everything - India
2003