Come rain or shine, two-coat powder coating protects in challenging conditions
Relicomp added two-coat powder coating to its range of services at a customer’s request. It took two years to perfect the coating process, and the development work is still ongoing. Now Relicomp serves its customers even better than before. Relicomp’s Quality Control Manager Katri Rientamo, who researched two-coat powder coating in her degree work, knows what high-quality coating requires.
Relicomp employed two-coat powder coating for a customer whose products are used in challenging conditions and need to endure a lot already during transport. Two-coat powder coating is an effective anti-corrosion method.
In practice, two-coat powder coating is exactly what it sounds like: the surface is coated twice. In powder coating, the weakest point of the surface is the edge of the product, where the powder coating shrinks, leaving too thin a layer of coating on the edges. A second coat of powder coating adds protection on the edges.
– When testing the progress of edge corrosion, it has been found that the difference between two-coat powder coating and traditional single-coat powder coating is staggering. The higher the corrosivity category, the more useful this is, Rientamo says.
”Just coating twice is not enough”
Two-coat powder coating is still a fairly new technology in Finland and offered by only a few operators to this extent. At Relicomp, the coating process has been honed for two years. At the same time, the welding and coating process has been invested in in general, as Rientamo points out that two-coat powder coating alone will not suffice; in addition, the entire production chain must meet the requirements. Indeed, Relicomp has trained the personnel of both its paint shop and welding shop for the requirements of the steel surface preparation grade and two-coat powder coating.
– Just coating twice is not enough; the whole production chain has to be controlled and monitored. We want to serve our customers as well as possible and have therefore invested in improving the skills of our personnel through training. It is also important to pay attention to the visual requirements of the products and make sure that customer requirements are met in all respects, Rientamo says.
Rientamo herself also researched two-coat powder coating in her degree work. She believes that the technology will become more widespread in the future, especially in heavy industry, the products of which are used even in harsh conditions. Relicomp wants to be at the forefront of development and provide what customers need.
– No one wants their valuable machines to rust. Two-coat powder coating improves the corrosion resistance and appearance of the machines, Rientamo says.
Teknos helps with choice of coating
Relicomp uses the products of the paint manufacturer Teknos for two-coat powder coating. In addition to supplying the coating powders, Teknos helps with choosing the product, tests different coating types and consults on maintenance coating. Teknos was involved in Relicomp’s first two-coat powder coating project from the beginning.
Area Sales Manager Jukka Lammi from Teknos explains that the coating powder used in two-coat powder coating must be chosen carefully. The main requirement for the coating is its corrosion resistance. In addition to that, the coating must be able to withstand mechanical stress and be flexible after drying.
– The end products must withstand long sea transports and changing environments. The same machines can be delivered to completely different environments, from Australia to Alaska. This requires a lot from the surface, Lammi sums up.