Powder Coating Orange Peel

What causes the increase in orange peel and how can we better control the film thickness.
Powder coating orange peel. Orange peel is when the surface of a coated product doesn t have an even smooth appearance to it after the coating is applied. Defined as an uneven texture of smooth finish products that resembles the skin of citrus fruit. This is when issues arise in the actual process of applying a powder coating to a substrate the result of which is then a reject. Hi as described orange peel is in fact a surface defect.
First you must accept that the solids content of the powder is greater than your old liquid paint and will always show a little more orange peel. The orange peel in powder coatings is inseparable from the characteristics of the powder coating itself and the influence of the equipment in the coating spray and the control of the process parameters during the powder coating spray process. Therefore one of the main objectives of the coatings industry is to make the final requirements of the user paints to achieve the best. Orange peel is a wavy appearance in the film that has the look of the peel of an orange.
Whether your powder coating or liquid coating orange peel is usually not desirable because it creates a poor overall finish appearance when your all done coating your product. The level of orange peel is visually determined by comparing to industry standards typically the powder coating institute pci visual smoothness standards. This can often be caused by low film build as simply put there s not enough coating on the part to create the nice smooth surface. We have compiled a list of precautions to take to keep powder coating at its best.
The appearance of the coating is becoming increasingly important in the new equipment manufacturing oem painting. When spraying clear coat on a second coat application sometimes it will come out with orange peel texture on a flat panel and smooth on rounder parts. One of the most common causes for this is the quality of the powder coating you are applying mainly the particle size distribution as described by shane. How can i get that smooth glass finish on the flat part.
Quite often a grainy effect or tight orange peel is what you end up with. Knowing orange peel in powder coating is not ideal it is important to know some of the. One of the most common quality issues with powder coating is an orange peel effect. We find the corresponding solution to avoid orange peel for different reasons.
Feihong powders on september 30 2012. Avoiding orange peel in clear coating 2006.