Letter 13049

Best Protection for Parking Meter 

Hi,

Reino international design and manufacture Electronic Multi bay parking meters sold world wide with the USA seeing the major overseas sales Berkeley, Houston, San Francisco.

The question relates to the protection of a new product that is made of mild steel of fabricated construction. I am looking at either Galvanized finish only or Galvanized and Polyester powder coated or Zinc plated and Polyester powder coated. Other? The conditions of service are "on the street" from snow and ice and salt to hot and steamy at the beach. The installation is to concrete footings and there could be some water pooling around the base. Constraints are cost!!! What is the best protection for the bucks? I know little of Galvanizing other than the basics and the finish that the marketing dept will accept is the galvanizing which exhibits the crystal structure on the surface - Is this achieved with processing or does this develop over time?

Chris Gollin
Reino International - Sydney, NSW, Australia

A powder coating or other organic coating will protect only if the component is not scratched, which is probably a bad bet for a parking meter. Either zinc plating or galvanizing will provide the sacrifical zinc layer that protects despite scratching. Galvanizing is usually much thicker than plating and is acceptable for outdoor exposure without painting whereas zinc plating alone would not be enough. If the galvanized appearance is satisfactory, that should do it, but I think the powder coated finish on top of plating would look much nicer.

 
Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com Inc. - Brick, NJ

I agree with how Mr. Mooney answered your question. That is the galvanizing of these parking meters is most likely your best option. In addition to this I also agree that you would be pleased with the enhanced aesthetics Powder Coating has to offer.

With this being said I would like to make you aware of the issues involved with Powder Coating over galvanizing. Because of the inherent properties of galvanizing the surface must be prepared differently for powder coating than a typical substrate. You can gain more knowledge of this through the "American Galvanizers Association". I am not affiliated with them, however, I used to operate a powder coating job shop before opening my own business as a equipment dealer/consultant & have been faced with this same dilemma. I found most of my answers through these people. Their website is www.galvanizeit.com.

Eric Beeson
- Hastings, NE, U.S.A.

Can powder coating be made a better corrosion resistant than galvanizing for outdoor street light poles . Can life of powder coat can be higher than hot dip galvanized pole? what is salt spray test life of pu based powder coat vs galvanized part.

Regards,

Vinod Mehta
powder coating - Faridabad, Haryana, India

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