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Super Hydrophobic Coating on Baskets to Reduce Drag-out

Q. Hello,
I'm an engineer working for a joist plant in Canada. In our process, we need to track joists all way out of the shop. This is performed with an embossed aluminium tag attached to joists at the beginning of fabrication.

The problem I have is that we do dip painting on most joists. Paint covers the joist and the aluminium tag and sometimes it is not possible to read it on site as the paint is too thick over it. We dip many joists at the same time and thus is not possible to cover every tag with something that will be removed after dipping (too much work).

My question is: Is there a product I could use on our aluminium plate that will keep away paint from the tag so the paint won't stick on it while dipping? We use oil base primer to prevent rust (long oil alkyl primer, drying by oxidization, high in solid and fast dry). The product needs to not contaminate the paint

In the near future, we would like to use bar code identification on aluminium tags or a sticker, but we first need to solve the problem with the paint hiding information.

Your help is very appreciated as I do have to find a solution to this problem. As a young engineer, I'm not very experienced and wish someone can help.

Thanks for your time

Pier-Luc Grenier
Engineer working on finishing - Moncton, New-Brunswick, Canada
October 20, 2009

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Q. Has anyone tried using Super Hydrophobic coatings similar to NeverWet on baskets to reduce drag out?

Dan Harris
- Fort Walton Beach, Florida, USA
March 16, 2015