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Soda helps powder coating stick

I was having trouble getting powder to go into little hooks and crevices. I was running all kinds of test pieces and different products. Then I accidentally discovered something that worked real good. My son spilled a soda on a piece of metal that I was getting ready to test. The soda fizzed on the test piece and when I went to wipe the soda off it cleaned the oils off the metal. I left the soda on the metal and went to coat the metal and the powder stuck to the metal real good. The powder went into all the crevices with no problems. The metal was so sticky because of the soda the powder stuck so good I could have turned the electric off to the coating gun.
After the part was coated I ran every kind of test I could and the powder held up just as good and even better then the rest of the parts I tested.
My question would be, is there any science to this? Is this safe?
Some of the benefits would be, soda is cheap, readily available, not harmful to environment, smell nice when baking, safe for people to work with.
please advise.Thank you,

Ron Flahart
- New Providence, Pennsylvania, USA
2006

I'm going to bet that it was the sugar/acid mix in the soda that did the job for you.

Marc Banks
Blacksmith - Shawboro, North Carolina
2006