Erie Powder Coatings NewsletterJune 2016

And Now Summer…

We noted on our last newsletter that Spring was here, and 2 months later Summer just seems to have landed on us. Which you won’t find too many complaining about.

Except possibly some plant workers in powder coating facilities.

The summer can be very long and very hot for workers on the powder line. Many manufacturing plants are hot in the summer, but a powder line with hot parts and a large oven really do add some extra temperature to a workers summer.

The high temperatures are difficult for the powder line workers, and are problematic for the powder as well. Both the humidity and the heat of the summer can lead to “blocking” of the powder. This shows up as clumpling and makes the powder difficult to spray.

Summer Powder Recommendations

• Store powder in a cool area – When not in use, powder needs to be stored in an area that is cool, less than 80F.
• Close and seal powder packages – This is important all year around to prevent contamination, but extra important to reduce humidity in the powder in the summer
• Beware of shipping issues – During the summer, Erie takes great pains not to ship powder over the weekend. Powders can be exposed to very high temperatures in transit, and this alone can lead to blocked powder before you even have a chance to use it.

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

 

– Horace

EPC News

We’ve been hiring: Erie has been hiring both production and lab personnel in the last couple of months. Production has been strong on both sides of the border, and additional production time, and people, were needed to keep the product moving. The lab has been busy as well, on both the product development and also the R&D side of the lab. We have hired new employees for the lab as well,.

Office Renovations at the Grassie Location Erie has undertaken office renovations at the Grassie facility. This will expand the area and the efficiency of office operations. Renovations are essentially complete, and only re-organization of the space needs to be done to complete the work.

Laboratory Upgrade at the North East facility: EPC continues work on the lab facilities at the North East facility. Work continues on getting the product development lab installed and finished ready to use. The major equipment has now been installed, but work continues to finish the space and for start up operations.

Production Upgrade at the North East facility: We are in process of installing a major upgrade to production cooling equipment for our powder lines. This upgrade will allow cooler temperatures in the summer, and more consistent capacity to the production lines. This equipment was purchased earlier this year, and arrived at EPC in mid May.

Technical Corner

Getting Back to Basics

Time after time we all hear professional athletes during an interview saying that they have to go back to the fundamentals of the game. Is it just that simple to achieve success?

When you think about it people do tend to over-complicate things. Maybe it really is that simple. I’ve spent many years in the powder coating industry solving issues for customers and generally they are simple problems that are easy to avoid once you have the knowledge.

I love solving problems and I encourage people to ask questions. Generally speaking, however, most people ask the questions after they have already tried to coat their products. It’s a rather expensive approach to ask the questions after the fact. It’s a tough world out there and margins are much lower than they used to be because of the global economy. We need to make sure we keep our problems to an absolute minimum or risk being uncompetitive.

The fundamentals of powder coating are pretty basic. It is a science. The key to getting a quality coating is to respect the science. If you ignore the science of coatings you will, undoubtedly, frequently, have issues. All too often we expect miracles and ignore the fundamentals of powder coatings.

Steven Covey once said “begin with the end in mind”. The end in mind obviously is to maximize profits. One painless way to accomplish this in powder coating or any business is to ensure that we minimize our mistakes.

Some days I’m sure every owner gets frustrated and thinks that their employees will be the death of the company. Mistakes happen but all too often these are mistakes that should have, or could have been avoided.

Being out on the road and seeing many companies I have noticed one thing that seems to be common with the most successful powder coaters. Most of the owners of these companies rarely are out in the plant doing the work. It’s not that they are not aware of what is happening in the plant because I know for a fact that they are paying close attention. It’s just that they don’t need to be out there all day watching their employees. These owners are comfortable leaving at any time because they trust their employees to make good decisions.

The most successful companies seem to know the value of constant training. They demand that all employees directly involved in the coating process become powder coating experts. Essentially they realize that giving their employee the mental tools of this trade is added value to the customer. These successful companies also seem to have many long term employees.

Could it be that offering training to employees helps with job satisfaction? Who doesn’t want to feel like they are valuable? Investing into their future makes a statement that the company wants a long term relationship.

Maybe those athletes were right. It’s time to get back to the fundamentals of powder coating. It’s time to give our employees the educational tools to become successful. Remember, their success is your success.

Don Tadeson
Sales Manger, Ontario

Continuing Education

Quality Control Equipment: PART 2

This I our ongoing series on educational information for coaters and users of powder coating.

Continued from previous newsletter…

In the first part of this article, we discussed a number of instruments are used for quality control in powder coating manufacturing and also in the finished coating process. Some of these are extremely complex measuring instruments, some are very basic. This article, part 2 on the subject, will discuss a few other instruments and how or why they are used in quality control of powder coatings.

Particle Size Analyses : There are two main instruments that are used to measure particle size in powder coatings.

Laser Particle Analysers: Laser analysers are very complex and high tech instruments. Laser analysers take any powder, including powder coating, and measure not just the particle size, but also can be used to measure shape, quantity, distribution, etc.

In general, the powder is dispersed, with either air or liquid so that the particles can be individually read. They are transported through the test area of the instrument, and laser light is passed through the particles. Sensors on the other side of the particles measure the light from the laser. A very complex calculation is done which can give the distribution of the powder particles, such as the curve seen below. 

Particle size analysers are somewhat sensitive, and thus can have some limitations on their usage. For example, the laser light can be affected by the color of the powder. However, they work quickly, and can give a huge amount of data in seconds.

Laser analysers are extremely expensive ($50,000 to $75,000), and thus very few powder applicators will have this in house. Additionally, the particle size of the powder can only be changed when it is manufactured. Thus, this is common equipment at powder manufacturers, but not with applicators.

Seive particle size: Powder particle size can also be measured using screens. Very simply, screens can be certified to have a very defined “opening” space. The particles that go through the screen will be smaller than that opening size, and the ones that can’t go through are larger.

However making this simple process both repeatable and accurate is difficult. Just like using flour in a home baking sieve, you can’t just pour it in and expect it to move through the screen. Typically, it will simply sit on top of the screen. At home, you might typically shake the sieve, or force it through with a spoon. Similarly, some sort of action needs to force the powder coating through a test sieve as well. Simple (but less accurate) shakers can be used, that really just shake the sieves to make the powder move. However, for powder coating operations, generally an air jet sieve is used.

Air jet sieves use certified sieves with specific openings. The sieve is put under vacuum pressure, but also a “air jet” is used. This air jet moves up through the screen, keeping the screen clean and moving the powder along and through the screen. This ups the accuracy and speed of the process.

This instrument gives limited information – one particle size at a time. Thus to get a particle size curve would require many measurements with many different screens. However, the data, while simple, is repeatable, and not influenced by factors other than the particle size (such as color of the powder). This makes this ideal for day to day repetitive measurements in quality control.

Cross Hatch Adhesion: Cross hatch adhesion testing is typically done to meet ASTM D3359. Testing “kits” can be purchased, including a cross hatch cutter, instructions, brush, tape, etc, that allows the tester to test to this ASTM method.

The cutter is used to score the coating down to the metal surface, cross-cut at 90 degrees. The test area is then taped. When the tape is lifted, some of the paint in the test area may lift off of the substrate. The less lifted, the better the adhesion. ASTM D3359 defines the method, and also the results, of this testing. Typically, most powder coatings can easily pass this test, if applied to a clean surface and fully cured.

Powder applicators that deal with defined specifications, such as automotive part suppliers, may be required to have this test kit in house, and use it regularly. The kit is not very expensive, and is easy to use.

However, many coating operations that aren’t heavily tied into rigid specifications may find that a much simpler method can give very good information.

A simple box cutter and strong tape like duct tape is a very inexpensive and very easy way to test adhesion. A “X” cut through the coating, or a cross cut similar to the ASTM method, but done by hand, can give a huge amount of information on adhesion and help avoid problems in the field.

Because this test, in its rigid ASTM form or its most simple form, is easy, inexpensive and gives excellent information, it is essential that coaters of all types do this type of testing regularly. This testing should be done on every shift, and recorded for future reference. This test, that takes seconds to run, could save thousands if it catches an adhesion problem on a coated part before it goes out for installation.

This instrument also would be used by powder manufacturers, but would not typically be used by coating applicators.

Gloss Meter: Gloss meters are extensively used in powder manufacturing operations. This, along with the spectrophotometer and the thickness gage, are by far the most used instruments in any powder manufacturers quality control and product development lab.

These meters beam a light at an angle to the coating surface, and measure the amount and type of light reflected back to the instrument. This measures the “shininess” of the coating, and gives it a numerical value. Typically, most coating specifications use 60 degree gloss measurements, meaning the light beamed onto the coating is beamed at 60 degrees to the coating surface. Other gloss measurements can be specified as well, such as 10 degree or 85 degree gloss measurements.

These instruments, while moderately expensive, are robust and readily available. Many higher end applications shops, especially where gloss levels are important or varying, will have gloss measuring instruments. Applicators where gloss doesn’t vary, or is not specified, may be able to simply use a visual standard.

Gloss instruments are basically not affected color, but are affected by the surface texture of the coating. Because they measure reflected light from the coating surface, a rolling texture, for example, that is visually very glossy will measure a much reduced gloss level using these instruments, due to the reflection of the light from the texture.

There are other instruments, such as DOI (depth of Image) equipment, that can be used in quality control. However the instruments in part 1 and part 2 of this article are the most commonly used instruments in powder coating, both at the powder manufacturing end, but also at the application end.

If you have any questions about any of this information, we will do our best to get you any information we can.

Contributing to this Newsletter