If you want the metal to last for a longtime, pre-treatment is essential before you coat them. Similarly, in the case of industrial powder coating, aluminum pre-treatment is an essential step for aluminum preparation and processing. This process can include several cleaning surfaces of aluminum, such as cleaning the surface of aluminum, etching the surface for chromate, so the powder can adhere to it. And white aluminum rust prevention. Let’s get to know all those functions in an elaborate way from below.
- Grease Removal
The first step to start the pre-treatment process for aluminum is to remove grease. But what type of grease removal method you want to use depends on the surface of the material and how many pollutants are there. Some popular methods are emulsion cleaning, alkali cleaning, solvent cleaning, and vapor degreasing. Most of the industrial powder coating process for aluminum pre-treatment use solvents with high pH level to carry out emulsion cleaning.
- Corrosion Cleaning
Rusting or corrosion can weaken a metal significantly, starting from the metal’s outer surface to affecting the inner surface. Rusting is mostly occurs when the metal is exposed to a damp environment. Applying coating on a rusted surface will make powder coat chip and peel off easily. Thus, the acid cleaning or etching process is carried out in order to dissolve the rusting easily.
- Activating Crystal Spots
This process helps the metal to activate active crystal spots when the phosphate coating procedure is conducted. There are two options for the activation process, i.e., acidic activation and basic activation. Since aluminum is smooth metal, basic activation is ideal for achieving a finer and resistant finish.
- Conversion coating
In the conversion coating process, the phosphates are bonded to the surface to make it more reactive to paint. This industrial powder coating process can either use zinc phosphate or iron phosphate to target iron particles.
The above pre-treatment process ensures that all the metal part is adequately prepared, so the powder can adhere correctly for the cleaning process. Preparing the metal before powder coating will increase its durability. You can contact Rockett Inc. for any kind of metal coating solutions at an affordable price.
