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Should refurbished truck wheels be zinc plated before powder coating?
June 2, 2013
Q. I work for a company that primarily retreads truck tires but also has a small operation re-conditioning (shot blasting and powder coating) truck rims. We offer both straight powder coat or primed with zinc primer depending on whether the customer wants to pay the additional expense. To my knowledge, nobody electroplates these rims with zinc prior to powder coating, so I am wondering:
1. The rims of course are usually quite rusty to start and still have small pits after shot blasting. Would electro-galvanizing permit better penetration into pitted areas thereby resulting in longer service life?
2. Would electro-galvanizing truck rims be prohibitively expensive (over say $10.00 US per unit?)
shop employee - Mishawaka, Indiana, USA
A. Hi Dan. I don't think zinc plating would be cost prohibitive, but I don't think it's the ideal answer. Good adhesion of powder coating onto the zinc plating is not impossible, but it's one more thing to worry about.
I think the ideal sequence would be sandblast, zinc phosphate, e-coat, powder coat -- so you might price out that option.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
June 3, 2013
A. We do such work at times, but we decline to powdercoat only, as this give insufficient corrosion proteciton.
We hot dip galvanize then powdercoat.
Zinc plating (electrogalvanizing is a misleading term) would not give much protection, and for the extra pretreatment required for the powdercoating, might as well be extended to proper galvanizing.
Geoff Crowley
Crithwood Ltd.
Westfield, Scotland, UK
June 6, 2013
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