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How to powder coat or anodize soft steel in a food plant?

I have lots of soft steel that rusts in contact with water and mild cleaners. We have traditionally used white enamal paint but this usually falls of or is abraded off. Is there a method of applying a hard surface coating that is food safe?
Thanks for your help.

Tom Davis
user of coated products - Picton NSW Australia
2007

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Hi, Tom, thanks for visiting finishing.com. Steel can't be anodized, but it can be painted or powder coated. But pretreatment is 90 percent of the solution. Simply repainting a surface that offers no adhesion doesn't work. Can the components be sent out or are they building columns and such?

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2007

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How about iron phosphating, followed by coating with a good two part epoxy resin? Not sure about food safety issues, but I'm pretty sure that if flaking enamel paint was not a serious problem, that there's a coating of that type that will work.

Barring that, you could replace the mild steel tanks, etc. with a good grade of stainless, citric acid passivated. There are facilities that use such equipment for processing in the pharmaceutical industry, under requirements likely more stringent than those pertaining to food.

Dave Wichern
Consultant - The Bronx, New York
2007