The Best Batch Powder Coating Tip of the Year!
If you’re doing batch powder coating in a production environment, you’ve probably had to deal with powder build-up on your racks. As a general rule, the better your rack is grounded, the more build-up you are likely to experience. Read more to learn about an innovative racking solution that can help.
We love when we get positive feedback and new ideas from visitors to our website. After looking over one of our tips & tricks articles, a friend of our company told us about the way his company minimizes the accumulation of powder overspray on their racks. Although we’ve seen isolation techniques before, this solution to grounding your parts and not your racks is noteworthy for its effectiveness, simplicity, and low cost.
To reduce powder accumulation, use heat resistant insulating material to isolate the frame of your rack from the rail(s) you hang your parts from. The simplest way to do this is to use studs that attach to the main frame of your cart/rolling rack. These should be incorporated so you can safely and securely place the rail (or rail assembly when using multiple rails connected by a frame) on the studs and nut them in place. Use an appropriate insert at each attachment point and synthetic nuts or lock nuts with heat-rated inserts. Use insulating washers to prevent the rest of the rail/rail assembly from contacting the main frame. These should be installed so they eliminate all grounding contact points. Be sure to add a stud or tab to the rail or rail assembly so you have a good spot to clip your ground strap. By adding multiple studs or tabs, you’ll have more choices for where to clip the ground and you can also rotate through them as tabs become covered with powder. Remember to use masking to keep the unused tabs powder-free until needed.
If build-up isn’t an issue, you may be having problems with poor powder attraction. This is when the powder doesn’t seem to be adequately drawn to the surface of your parts. If you’ve got insufficient electrostatic attraction, you’re wasting powder and probably dealing with an excessive amount of powder overspray in your booth filters and/or wasting time cleaning up large quantities of powder from the floor of your powder booth.
To improve attraction, we recommend a supplemental ground. Install one or more ground rods in or near your powder spray booth. We suggest using 8’ copper grounding rods that are connected to your racks using heavy gauge (8-gauge recommended) grounding straps that are connected to the ground rods and then attached to your racks before parts are powder coated.
If this tip was helpful, please let us know! If you have questions about powder coating equipment or processes, give our experts a call at 256-355-9000 or check out our website at www.reliantfinishingsystems.com. If you’d like to see more tips & tricks, click here to go straight to our online resource library.