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What is the best pretreatment for Duracoat?
Q. I am looking to do a Duracoat on some small parts that I am making. The Duracoat is provided by www.lauerweaponry.com. They suggest that I get the parts parkerized before applying the Duracoat. I'm in the middle of the machining process now, and would like to know a few things before I go ahead with the finishing process.
1. What exactly is the industrial name for Parkerize and DuraCoat? I thought Parkerize is a type of zinc/manganese phosphate, but I can't be sure.
2. Any alternative to parkerizing as foundation for the DuraCoat? I can't find any vendor around me to do the job (parkerized or zinc/manganese phosphate) and I'd prefer to have someone handle this professionally.
Hobbyist - Walnut Creek, California USA
November 20, 2015
A. Hi Minh. You are right that over the past many decades the phrase "Parkerize" has become so slang-ified that it is hopeless to try to put a fine point on it. Many people insist that it means manganese phosphate, many insist it is zinc phosphate, and both groups cite historical literature to prove their claim :-)
If you are applying a proprietary coating like Duracoat, you really ought to ask them to spell out exactly what they want for pretreatment, rather than presenting it ambiguously -- but I'm pretty confident that a conventional zinc phosphate pretreatment will be just fine, and so will the less common manganese phosphate. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
(Ted can offer longterm or instant help)
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 2015