46068

Masking during powder coating [India] 

August 7, 2007

I have no expertisee on this subject, but am struggling with a supply of parts that we are having powder coated. Basically we are powder coating a machined and anodised aluminium part. There are some areas that require masking. Our supplier is using a combination of tape and aluminium masks. The tape works well, in terms of the finish to the edges, however the aluminium masks leave a rough finish proud of the edge - we have tried a number of designs for the machined mask to reduce/eliminate the effect of rough edges - without success. The edge is where a 45 deg chamfer (painted) meets a flat face (masked). Any suggestions for the design of the mask or alterantive materials for the mask would be gratefully recieved.

Murali Hallur
Engineer - Pune, India

Depending on the geometry of the parts, we have successfully "masked", by not masking at all, then removing the powder with a small brush before curing.
If you need a clean edge to the painted/unpainted boundary, and there's no lip, ridge, trnsition etc, then this is impractical, but where geometry of the part means the line is in the substrate already, then this is a simple effective means of masking.

Geoff Crowley    galvanizing &    powder coating shop Glasgow, Scotland

 

Dear u can solve this problem very easily if u use teflon or silicon masking.

Kuldeep Singh
Wet process engineer - Pantnagar, Uttrakhand, India