Where theworld gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989
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Powder Coating tiny blades
August 18, 2021
Q. I need to powder coat several small metal blades to be used in fishing lures. These blades are slightly convex/concave and approx. .75" x .75". They have a small hole at the top of the blade. I would like the blade to have thin even coverage. I cannot find a coating methodology that allows for even coverage that is defect free. The best method currently is to dip the part hot into a fluid bed. Unfortunately, the hanger/hook to hang this part gets easily coated in powder making it difficult to remove the blade from the hook/hanger. Also, the dipping method makes the coating much thicker at the bottom of the blade and sags and drips during cure.
Electro static seems like overkill since the parts are so small and I'm not sure how the part won't get fused to the hanger/hook. The part must be hanged by the hole in the blade so that there isn't a mark left by clips or pliers.
Tim Ossi- Germantown Maryland
A. Hi Tim. There are many different ways to "paint" your parts. Electrophoretic lacquer would be very thin and very even but might require more volume than you produce. Certainly wet paint is another possibility.
I don't think fluidized bed coating inherently suffers from the things you are reporting.
What metal are the parts made of? From the pics, description, and lack of description of the metal of the substrate, I'm wondering if you are unaware so far of the need for pretreatment?
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 2021
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