IX Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2017

The selection of an application method is as important as the selection of the coating itself. Basically, the application methods for industrial liquid coatings and finishes are dipping, flow coating, and spraying, although some coatings are applied by brushing, rolling, printing, and silk screening. The application methods for powder coatings and finishes are fluidized beds, electrostatic fluidized beds, and electrostatic spray outfits.

1. Dip coating

Dip coating (95 to 100% TE) is a simple coating method where products are dipped in a tank of coating material, withdrawn, and allowed to drain in the solvent-rich area above the coating’s surface and then allowed to dry. The film thickness is controlled by viscosity, flow, percent solids by volume, and rate of withdrawal. This simple process can also be automated with the addition of a drain-off area, which allows excess coating material to flow back to the dip tank.

Dip coating is a simple, quick method that does not require sophisticated equipment. The disadvantages of dip coating are film thickness differential from top to bottom, resulting in the so-called wedge effect; fatty edges on lower parts of products; and runs and sags. Although this method coats all surface areas, solvent reflux can cause low film build. Light products can float off the hanger and hooks and fall into the dip tank. Solvent-containing coatings in dip tanks and drain tunnels must be protected by fire extinguishers and safety dump tanks. The fire hazard can be eliminated by using waterborne coatings.

2. Electrocoating

Electrocoating (95 to 100% TE) is a sophisticated dipping method commercialized in the 1960s to solve severe corrosion problems in the automotive industry. In principle, it is similar to electroplating, except that organic coatings, rather than metals, are deposited on products from an electrolytic bath. Electrocoating can be either anodic (deposition of coatings on the anode from an alkaline bath) or cathodic (deposition of coatings on the cathode from an acidic bath). The bath is aqueous and contains very little VOCs. The phenomenon called throwing power causes inaccessible areas to be coated with uniform film thicknesses. Electrocoating has gained a significant share of the primer and one-coat enamel coatings market.

Advantages of the electrocoating method include environmental acceptability owing to decreased solvent emissions and increased corrosion protection to inaccessible areas. It is less labor intensive than other methods, and it produces uniform film thickness from top to bottom and inside and outside on products with a complex shape. Disadvantages are high capital equipment costs, high material costs, and more thorough pretreatment. Higher operator skills are required.

3.Spray coating

Spray coating (30 to 90% TE), which was introduced to the automobile industry in the 1920s, revolutionized industrial painting. The results of this development were increased production and improved appearance. Electrostatics, which were added in the 1940s, improved transfer efficiency and reduced material consumption.

Rotating electrostatic disks and bell spray coating. Rotating spray coaters (80 to 90% TE) rely on centrifugal force to atomize droplets of liquid as they leave the highly machined, knife-edged rim of an electrically charged rotating applicator. The new higher-rotational speed applicators will atomize high-viscosity, high-solids coatings (65% volume solids and higher). Disk-shaped applicators are almost always used in the automatic mode, with vertical reciprocators, inside a loop in the conveyor line. Bell-shaped applicators are used in automated systems in the same configurations as spray guns and can also be used manually.

High-volume, low-pressure spray coating. High-volume, low-pressure (HVLP) spray coaters (40 to 60% TE) are a development of the early 1960s that has been upgraded. Turbines rather than pumps are now used to supply high volumes of low-pressure heated air to the spray guns. Newer versions use ordinary compressed air. The air is heated to reduce the tendency to condense atmospheric moisture and to stabilize solvent evaporation. Low atomizing pressure results in lower droplet velocity, reduced bounce back, and reduced overspray.The main advantage of HVLP spray coating is the reduction of overspray and bounce back and the elimination of the vapor cloud usually associated with spray painting. A disadvantage is the poor appearance of the cured film.

Airless spray coating. When it was introduced, airless spray coating (50 to 60% TE) was an important paint-saving development. The coating material is forced by hydraulic pressure through a small orifice in the spray gun nozzle. As the liquid leaves the orifice, it expands and atomizes. The droplets have low velocities because they are not propelled by air pressure as in conventional spray guns. To reduce the coating’s viscosity without adding solvents, in-line heaters were added. Advantages of airless spray coating are that less solvent used, less overspray, less bounce back, and compensation for seasonal ambient air temperature and humidity changes. A disadvantage is its slower coating rate.

Multicomponent spray coating. Since they can be either hydraulic or air atomizing, their transfer efficiencies vary from low to medium. They have two or more sets of supply and metering pumps to transport components to a common spray head.

Their main advantage, the ability to apply fast-curing multicomponent coatings, can be overshadowed by disadvantages in equipment cleanup, maintenance, and low transfer efficiency.

4. Powder coating

Powder coating (95 to 100% TE), developed in the 1950s, is a method for applying finely divided, dry, solid resinous coatings by dipping products in a fluidized bed or by spraying them electrostatically. The Coatings and Finishes fluidized bed is essentially a modified dip tank. When charged powder particles are applied during the electrostatic spraying method, they adhere to grounded parts until fused and cured. In all cases the powder coating must be heated to its melt temperature, where a phase change occurs, causing it to adhere to the product and fuse to form a continuous coating film.

Fluidized bed powder coating. Fluidized bed powder coating (95 to 100% TE) is simply a dipping process that uses dry, finely divided plastic materials. A fluidized bed is a tank with a porous bottom plate. The plenum below the porous plate supplies low-pressure air uniformly across the plate. The rising air surrounds and suspends the finely divided plastic powder particles, so the powder- air mixture resembles a boiling liquid. Products that are preheated above the melt temperature of the material are dipped in the fluidized bed, where the powder melts and fuses into a continuous coating. Thermosetting powders often require additional heat to cure the film on the product. The high transfer efficiency results from littledragout and consequently no dripping. This method is used to apply heavy coats, 3 to 10 mil, in one dip, uniformly, to complex-shaped products. The film thickness is dependent on the powder chemistry, preheat temperature, and dwell time. It is possible to build a film thickness of 100 mil using higher preheat temperatures and multiple dips.

References

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2. Resin and plastics // catalog – M: IB "Infoprom", 1991. – 567 p.

3. Egorova E.I., Kopternarmusov V.B. The basic technology of polystyrene plastics - SPb.: KHIMIZDAT, 2005,. - 272 p.

1. Харпер Ч.А. Современные пластмассы: справочник – Нью Йорк: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2000 – 1232 с.

2. Смолы и пластмассы // каталог - М.: ИБ "Инфопром", 1991. – 567 с.

3. Егорова Е.И., Коптенармусов В.Б. Основы технологии полистирольных пластиков - СПб.: ХИМИЗДАТ, 2005. – 272 с.

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