Question- Powder Coating of aircraft parts

[Tom Downey]

No debate on the prep work on any material for any coatings. Wet coatings are not a cure for poor prep work.

Ura type powders are far superior to any wet coatings. They will resist scratching and maintain their shine better than any wet coatings, the limiting factor in using powders is the fact we must place them in a 400+ degree heat to cure the powder. Many items can not with stand that heat, linseed oil treated tubing being one of them heat treated aluminum being another. ( and there are others)

[Aaron Novak]

No debate on the prep work on any material for any coatings. Wet coatings are not a cure for poor prep work.

Ura type powders are far superior to any wet coatings. They will resist scratching and maintain their shine better than any wet coatings, the limiting factor in using powders is the fact we must place them in a 400+ degree heat to cure the powder. Many items can not with stand that heat, linseed oil treated tubing being one of them heat treated aluminum being another. ( and there are others)

Like everything in life, there are trade offs.The Ura powders excel in some areas and fall short in others. They are by no means a cure all or direct replacement for liquids. For corrosion protection in extreme environments, its hard to beat a conversion coating, epoxy liquid prime and enamel ( stoved or air dry ) topcoat. And keep in mind if you are going to use a primer that has a sacrificial pigment, the sealing traits of powders can hinder the primers performance. So I go back to my basic point, use the powder as a topcoat, and prep/prime as you would with any other topcoat. If you just do a single stage on bare metal.....well good luck with that.


P.S. Just so you know, I use both powders and liquids, not that I am partial to one because I dont have the other or anything like that.

[Tom Downey]

Like everything in life, there are trade offs.The Ura powders excel in some areas and fall short in others. They are by no means a cure all or direct replacement for liquids. For corrosion protection in extreme environments, its hard to beat a conversion coating, epoxy liquid prime and enamel ( stoved or air dry ) topcoat. And keep in mind if you are going to use a primer that has a sacrificial pigment, the sealing traits of powders can hinder the primers performance. So I go back to my basic point, use the powder as a topcoat, and prep/prime as you would with any other topcoat. If you just do a single stage on bare metal.....well good luck with that.


P.S. Just so you know, I use both powders and liquids, not that I am partial to one because I dont have the other or anything like that.

Your beliefs are contrary to the findings of the Navy testing program that lead to the Navy changing to powder coating on their support equipment, the preventive maintenance program was having the equipment disassembled for cleaning and repainting ever 12 calendar months, when we changed to powder coating the period was extended to "as required" and the equipment was staying in service up to 5 years with out any other treatment.
Your conversion coating is by another name "Alodine" and others are an acid etch and there is much discussion in the industry as to it worth, because it will cause more corrosion when not removed prior to painting.
The iron/steel parts that we are using powder coating on will get an etch just like the aluminum then they are rinsed and pre-baked and then powder applied, and baked again. Thus the pre-treatment are almost identical and the paint film is much stronger using powder.

As I have said before, when done properly the powder systems are far superior to any of the wet systems.

[Aaron Novak]

Tom,
And your beliefs are contrary to what the material science department of the company I work for has learned about coating components for marine applications. This could go on and on.

[Tom Downey]

Tom, This could go on and on.

Yes it could,,,, Cya.