Plastic powders as metal coatings

Many of you may already be familiar with the term ‘powder coating’. For those of you who are not, I would like to describe the term briefly. Powder coating is a relatively new process by which dry plastic powders are applied to a clean metal surface. After application, the coated object is heated, fusing the powder to form a smooth, tough coating. Available today are many plastic powders offering a wide range of properties and colours. These powders are fully formulated and are free‐flowing ready for application to metal. Previous coatings for such items have been applied from solution. The dry plastic powders are normally higher molecular weight polymers than those used in solution: because of this, the coatings produced have greatly increased durability, toughness and abrasion resistance.