What Equipment and Supplies Are Required for Powder Coating?

There’s always something new to explore when it comes to topics like powder coating equipment. In this article, we take a closer look from a fresh angle, sharing ideas, insights, and experiences that matter. No matter your background, we hope the content gives you something to think about or apply.

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Powder coating is an electrostatic process used to strengthen materials and surfaces in many industries, including automotive and industrial. But if you’ve never done this process and don’t know where to start, or you’ve tried it in the past and didn’t get the results you were hoping for, we’re here to help. First things first, you’ll need to be equipped with all the right equipment and supplies, so that’s exactly where we’re starting.

The powder coating process can be quite complex, and there are a few things you’ll need to have to hand to ensure that the coating is applied properly. Below, we’ve broken down the required equipment and supplies into simple lists so you can make sure nothing is forgotten.

What supplies are required for powder coating?

Let’s start with the supplies you’ll need before you can get started with powder coating, including primer and masking products.

Primer

As with most coating applications, you’ll need a primer to help it stick to the material properly.

For powder coating, you’ll usually need a corrosion-resistant primer since this will prevent rusting and corrosion under the powder coating. This is the best way to ensure the coating can do its job and last longer. Typically, an epoxy primer should be used for this, so make sure you have this to hand.

Masking products

The masking supplies you use for powder coating must be durable and capable of withstanding the high temperatures they’re exposed to during the process. We recommend using our Green High Temperature Polyester Film Tape and Blue High Temperature Polyester Film Tape since these both offer excellent temperature resistance of up to 220°C/428°F for up to 30 minutes. Working on a curved surface? You can easily mask it off with the thinner and more flexible blue variation of our tape. Powder coating a flat surface? Go with our green variation with its increased thickness and durability.

During alloy wheel powder coating specifically, you might also need to protect the rear hub. Our Green High Temperature Polyester Film Discs are the ideal solution and something we would recommend using when powder coating this surface. The polyester film discs are temperature-resistant up to 220°C/428°F for up to 30 minutes, and like the tapes they were modelled on, they provide a perfect finish each time.

Powder coating materials

Finally, for the supplies, you’ll need to have the powder coating materials. This includes the polymer resin coating and the curatives, pigments, levelling agents, flow modifiers, and other additives that will be mixed with it.

What equipment is required for powder coating?

Moving on to the kinds of equipment you’ll need, below you’ll find a basic list of what should be used to carry out the powder coating process on materials and surfaces.

Tools for disassembly

Depending on the material you’re working on, you might need to disassemble some of the parts to ensure your coating is evenly and properly applied. This might require a wrench, screwdriver or pliers, so check the material to make sure you have the necessary tools before you go ahead with the rest of your powder coating preparation [Link to blog when live].

Sandblasting equipment

Part of the preparation will require you to sandblast the material or surface. This will give it the texture needed to help the coating stick and settle into the material, giving it the durability you’re seeking. For this step, you’ll need a sandblasting machine, abrasives and dust collectors.

Powder coating gun

A powder coating gun is needed for applying the powder coating mixture. These guns can be manual or automatic and provide  the control necessary to achieve for the desired finish. A powder coating gun will push the powder through with compressed air, and then the electrostatically charged coating can spread across the surface.

Spray booth / extraction unit

The powder coating should be applied in a spray booth that’s large enough for the surface. This should be properly ventilated to ensure the coating is filtered out and doesn’t linger in the air. The temperature should also be controlled to ensure the coating doesn’t melt as it’s being applied.

Curing oven / plant

There are a few different types of self-contained curing plants and ovens, and the type you have will likely depend on the industry you’re in and the size of your establishment. From compact curing ovens to industrial ones, just make sure that yours is fit for purpose and is the most cost-effective option for you. The main thing to remember is that the powder coating must be cured at high temperatures to melt it into the surface, so check that your curing oven or plant can achieve these levels.

PPE

Protecting yourself during this process is crucial since you’re dealing with high temperatures and chemicals. Because of the dust that’s produced during powder coat preparation and the powder coating process itself, it’s recommended to wear a respirator that filters this out. Temperature-resistant gloves and clothing should also be worn to protect you from burning yourself during any part of the process. Additionally, hard-toed boots are recommended when working with heavy materials, which is likely in the industries this coating is normally used within.

If the product you want to powder coat has a lot of debris (rust, laser scale, preexisting paint), then you will likely need a Blast Room. A blast room is an enclosure where you use compressed air to propel abrasive material against the surface of your parts. Depending on the situation, you would typically use either an appropriate blast media (grit) or steel shot to blast all the unwanted debris off your part until it has a clean metal surface that’s ready for powder coating. Blast rooms are especially useful for job shops that work with raw materials that aren’t pristine, such as plate steel or tube stock that has areas of oxidation or welding residue. (For more information on getting the right blast room, go here.)

If oils, solvents or chemical residue covers any part of your products’ surface, you’ll want to consider a Wash Station. A wash station is where you spray your parts with a detergent and/or chemical pretreatment agent, such as iron phosphate. Using hot water or steam to clean and then chemically prep parts is quite common. A wash station helps you increase powder adhesion and improve finish quality, even if the parts have already been blasted. Some wash stations require you to apply the chemistry manually using a spray wand. Other washers are automated and the parts travel through the cleaning, rinsing and prep stages on a conveyor.

In some operations, pretreatment requires the use of a Dry-Off Oven. This is commonly an appliance similar to a curing oven, but where the just-washed parts are heated in order to evaporate any water or chemistry still on them. This step can also help parts reach an optimum temperature for powder application.

Pretreatment equipment is incredibly useful for your operation and can make a big difference in the quality of your work, but an elaborate system isn’t always required for powder coating. While we can’t stress how important it is to have a clean surface before you apply powder, expensive pretreatment equipment isn’t mandatory for entry level coating operations where hands-on cleaning (such as with a tack rag and solvent) can be employed as needed.

Application: Powder Guns and Powder Spray Booths

Powder coating application is almost always done with a special Powder Spray Gun. In order for powder coating to work effectively, the powder must be electrostatically charged. The only way to apply this charge is with a spray gun designed exclusively for powder coating. Compressed air moves powder through the gun from a hopper or directly from the box the powder is stored in. The compressed air blows powder out of the gun as a tightly formed cloud. As the powder leaves the gun, it receives an electrostatic charge. Once charged, the powder cloud envelopes the part and the powder sticks to the surface of the grounded part (which is one of the reasons why powder coating equipment is so easy for new operators to use).

If you want to powder coat, you need a powder coating gun. There are many types of powder spray guns available on the market. We always recommend investing in a professional-grade powder gun, as they are more reliable and provide better results.

Once you have your powder gun, you’ll need to have a place to use it. Whenever you spray powder, some of the powder will end up on the floor and in the air instead of on your products. This leftover powder is referred to as overspray. Keeping this overspray out of your workspace is one of the functions of the Powder Spray Booth.

The powder spray booth is designed to keep the rest of your shop clean while providing a well-lit area for you to apply powder coating. All powder spray booths will have one or more exhaust fans. The exhaust will use filters to capture at least some of the overspray. If the exhaust works properly and the filters are maintained, the airflow in the booth should keep the overspray inside the enclosure and enable the painter to see what he’s doing. If your shop environment includes welding or blasting areas, filtered doors on the spray booth can keep airborne contaminants out of your powder coated finish.

Numerous booth configurations are available, and getting the ideal booth depends largely on what you’re coating, your floor space availability, and your workflow requirements. Powder spray booths can be open-faced or have doors on one end. They can also be tunnel style enclosures with the filtration built into the floor or wall(s). If you have space constraints, a Powder Spray Wall may help you get the airflow and filtration you need. A spray wall is just a large filtration system—essentially a spray booth without walls or a roof.

If you want to recycle your powder, you need to make sure your powder spray booth is built with a reclamation system. Usually this system will rely on pleated cartridge filters. These help you recover some of the overspray and reuse it. This can be very cost-effective if you are planning to use only one color and type of powder for your coating. The spent powder is trapped in the filters and then dislodged into a recovery bin for reuse. In more advanced systems, the powder is automatically reconditioned, mixed with virgin powder, and then returned to the supply hopper feeding the powder gun(s). If you are planning to reclaim a variety of colors, a set of removable filter modules is required. Unfortunately, the cost of buying multiple reclaim modules can add up quickly because you can only reclaim one color in each filter module.

No matter what type of booth you decide on, you’ll need a powder spray booth if you want to get quality results and maintain reasonable throughput from your coating operation. (For more information on what size powder spray booth you might need, click here.)

If you have stringent finish requirements, you may also need a Clean Room (also called an Environmental Room). This is usually a climate-controlled room built around the powder application area. The purpose of a clean room is to eliminate airborne contaminants and control the temperature and humidity during powder application to prevent any sort of contamination, clumping or consistency issues when applying the powder. Clean rooms are often recommended if your shop environment is particularly dirty or your products require an exact specification for adhesion or salt spray tolerance. (For more about requirements, click here.)

Curing: Powder Curing Ovens

After your product is powder coated, the final step is to place it inside a specially designed Powder Curing Oven. They usually operate between 325° and 450° Fahrenheit. Once the oven is up to temperature, the temperature stabilizes. The coated products are exposed to precisely heated air for a set period of time. Once the curing process is complete, the parts are removed and allowed to cool before being handled.

Some ovens use infrared emitters to heat the surface of the coated parts, but these types of electric powered or gas catalytic ovens can be costly to buy and expensive to maintain. More commonly, ovens rely on electric heating elements or a natural gas or LP-fueled heat system. These more conventional ovens typically rely on heated air moving over the parts for convection curing.

The time it takes to cure the powder varies greatly depending on the size, shape and thickness of the parts being coated. A small, light-gauge bracket can take as little as ten minutes to cure completely, while a 20’ section of heavy-walled pipe may take over an hour to cure properly.

If you want to powder coat at a professional level, the type of oven you choose is critical.  Not only are brand-name powder curing ovens designed specifically to generate premium coating results, they are also highly efficient appliances in terms of fuel usage and energy costs. It’s likely that you’ll be using your oven several hours per week, so the cost of an inefficient design can quickly sap your profits.

Aohai Coating Equipment supply professional and honest service.

Professional powder coating systems Layouts

There are two basic configurations for any powder coating line: batch or automated.

A Batch Powder Coating Line is usually a system where the parts are prepared, coated and cured in batches of multiple parts, with operators handling up to dozens or hundreds of parts at a time. The products are usually hung on metal rolling racks, which move with the parts throughout the coating process. (Remember: high-temperature or metal casters for your racks are very important!) With a batch line, parts are usually moved from stage to stage manually, and the term “batch coating system” is also commonly used to describe operations where large objects are coated individually after being moved by hand or with machine.

An Automated Powder Coating Line uses basically the same appliances as a batch system, but connects many or all of the stages via a motorized conveyor that moves the parts through at a constant rate. The products are usually loaded onto the conveyor at a set location and move through each stage, where either manual operators or automated devices clean and prep the parts and apply powder to them. Once coated, the parts move through the curing oven and then cool as they travel along the conveyor to a point where they can be unloaded.

(For more information on whether a batch coating line or an automated coating line is right for your business, follow this link to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of each system.)

Both tribo and corona powder coating guns are commonly used for particle charging in the powder coating industry. Depending on the application, tribo or corona powder coating technologies have a lot of advantages and disadvantages.

What is corona powder coating?

Corona powder coating is applying high voltage to charge the powder particles and creates an electric field. those particles with negative charge will be easily attracted to a grounded or positive-charge work piece.

What is tribo powder coating?

Tribo powder coating process is using triboelectric effect that produced during the close friction between material of gun barrel and powder to charge the powder particles.

Corona Powder Coating Guns

Advantages

1) Built in high voltage  (normally 100kv) cascade generates strong electrostatic field results in rapid charging and deposition

2) Electrostatic fieldlines support the powder particles to move towards the work piece, powder coatig operation is more easiler

3) Light, robust spray gun, simple construction with less wearing parts.

5) Accepts different types of powder materials and particle sizes

6) Film thickness can be simply changed by voltage variations

7) Spray gun design are easy to clean that suits for fast colour changes

Disadvantages

1) Strong fieldlines lead to Faraday Cage effect, complex shapes with deep corners is hard to get a perfect coverage if not using a professional advanced powder gun.

2) Orangle peel, back-ionisation, multiple coats are challengings for corona powder coating guns.

Tribo Powder Coating Guns:

Advantages

1) Avoids Faraday effect, better peneration of deep corners, recesses, holes

2) Powder can be better directed by the use of directional finger sprayers and aerodynamics

3) Thicker film builds possible without back-ionisation

4) Uniform coating, no orange peel effect

5) Higher productivity by closer arrangement of objects

Disadvantages

1) Charging particles takes more time, thus production efficiency decreases during long runs.

2) More complicated structure, color changes take a long time

3) Higher initial investment cost of spray gun for equal capacity output

4) More wear and shorter life time of gun parts such as spray nozzles, venturi sleeves.

5) Higher requirements of compressed air wirh good cleanliness and humidity

6) Requires comprehensive training of the application operator

For more Powder Coating Reciprocator(es,in,vi)information, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.