Letter 37077

Powder paint removal without ruining spring temper? [Kentucky] 

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How do you remove powder paint from a spring loaded metal clamp and not degrade the spring? We use a pony #3201 metal clamp which has a metal spring for tension, to hold parts to our rack. After a multitue of coatings the clamp hinges are imobilized. Heat sufficient to remove the paint degrades the spring tension and makes the clamp useless. Freezing make the paint chip easier however it warms up fast. I am going to try a hot water bath. Thanks.

Patrick Andres
Cardinal Aluminum Co. - Louisville, KY

Avoiding a process that you have to use the word "hot" to describe is your best bet, but in a molten sand bed the parts only have to be in an hour or so, it's possible that you wouldn't have to worry about the spring annealing in that amount of time. Then there is chemical stripping, sand(or some other media) blasting, cost analysis to see if it's more economical to replace them than clean them, wrap high temp masking tape around the area where the spring is so you can use them longer before they need to be stripped....?

Sheldon Taylor    supply chain electronics Wake Forest, No. Carolina

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