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Typical Thickness of Powder Coating on Sheet Metal

Good morning,

I'm a design engineer and currently working on a panel mounted electrical connector. This connector needs to snap fit into panels that range in thickness from .030" to .062". The wild card is painting or powder coating. If my customers decide to do either, what additional thickness range should I realistically expect to encounter? I would much rather address the potential issues now than wait for the customer complaints to come in months down the road.

Thank you for your time and advice.

Allyssa Skidmore
Product Designer - Sterling, MA, USA
October 15, 2009

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Hi, Allyssa. Although thermoplastic coatings like nylon could be much thicker, typical decorative thermoset powders are about 2 to 3 thousandths of an inch thick

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October 15, 2009

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Additionally, powder coating tends to bead on the edge of the material, so if the painters are consistent with the 2-3 mils, there could still be a fit issue that needs to be addressed, AND, with a tolerance this tight the painters will not be able to rework rejects. They will have to scrap or chemically strip rejects, so make sure that they agree that they can do the work consistently with a ± reject rate or else you will have another issue that you'll have to deal with down the road.

Sheldon Taylor
supply chain electronics
Wake Forest, North Carolina
October 20, 2009