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Masking during powder coating

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I have no expertise 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 alternative materials for the mask would be gratefully received.

Murali Hallur
Engineer - Pune, India
2007

A. 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, transition 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
Crithwood Ltd.
Westfield, Scotland, UK

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

Kuldeep Singh
Wet process engineer - Pantnagar, Uttrakhand, India

We doing polyester black powder coating on aluminium tube used in shock absorber for motor cycle. There are some areas that require masking. We are using silicon masking in threaded area. I have no expertise on this subject, but am struggling with masking dust on finished component of unclean masking. Please any suggestions mask cleaning method / design of the mask or alternative materials for the mask would be gratefully received.

Mr.Pravin patel
powder coating - Nasik, Maharashtra, India
October 23, 2011

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