Finishing Fabricated Metal Products with Powder Coating

摘要

This report provides an evaluation, on a technical and economic basis, on apowder coating system utilized to coat the exterior and interior surfaces of metal boxes fabricated for the telephone and cable industries. In comparison to conventional coating systems employing volatile solvents, this evaluation summarized many of the requirements and benefits of a clean technology that effectively eliminates the use of hazardous solvents as well as prevents the generation of volatile organic emissions and hazardous solid waste. The economic results concur with published references which indicate labor and cleanup costs for powder systems are about 38% lower that the costs compiled for wet-finishing systems. A comparative analysis of published operating costs indicates that the powder coating system is more advantageous than systems utilizing conventional solvent, waterborne or high solids coatings. The cost advantages are, in part, attributed to lower energy and maintenance requirements.