Recommended Safety Equipment for Powder Coating

March 4, 2020 12:10 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Any time you’re going to be performing some powder coating work, it’s important that you have the proper equipment on hand, both to complete the job safely and to ensure the highest possible quality in your finished product. With this in mind, here’s a quick overview of some of the safety equipment we recommend for powder coating in Umatilla County, OR:

  • Infrared temperature gun: You need to know the temperature of the part to be able to start the curing or batch timer at the correct time. An infrared temperature gun makes for an extremely handy tool when you’re powder coating. All you need to do is shoot it at the part to determine the temperature, so you can eliminate any guesswork and instead get an accurate temperature and total required bake time quickly and easily. Any time you can cut out guesswork during the powder coating process, this makes for safer operations.
  • Mil thickness gauge: An important aspect of the powder coating process is making sure you achieve the proper thickness of the coating. All manufacturers will have a specific mil thickness they’re attempting to reach, and a failure to hit a specific thickness or target range of thickness could result in compromised performance and/or appearance. These mil thickness gauges come in handy when you need to determine the depth of the thickness of your coating. Whether you’re new to powder coating or have done thousands of parts before, this is a handy tool to have, and one that won’t cost much to add to your shop if you’re looking for a simple base model.
  • Fluidizer: Fluidizers are a sort of hopper that use air to aerate dry powder, resulting in a fluidized powder bed. From that, the spray gun is able to draw from a pump, improving overall spray-ability for the powder. Every powder used has a different formulation that affects the way the gun sprays. With metallic powders, for example, the particles inside the powder mixture are heavier, which can result in them settling and creating an uneven-looking finish. By using a fluidizer, you are able to keep those metallic particles evenly suspended in the finish, resulting in a more consistent appearance. You can find fluidizers with capacities ranging from just a few pounds to a few hundred pounds.
  • Personal protective equipment: Of course, you should always be wearing personal protective equipment when taking on any kind of industrial job, including powder coating. You will absolutely want to wear a respirator—even though powder coatings are non-VOC materials, you still aren’t going to want to breathe in the dust they emit. You should also wear latex or powder-free nitrile gloves, just in case you need to pick up and handle a part after the pre-treatment process is complete. This will prevent the natural oils from your skin from affecting the part.

For more information about the most important equipment to have on hand for the safety and quality of your powder coating, contact NW Metal Fabricators Inc. today to check out our selection of safety equipment for powder coating in Umatilla County, OR.

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