Powder enamel equipment
As shown in my presentation, powder enameling has many benefits compared to traditional wet enameling.
Beneath some pictures of powder enameling systems for respectively cookers & boilers.
The core of every powder enamel system is the application equipment. The type of application equipment, their set-up and utilized parameters determine the first pass transfer efficiency of the dry powder enameling processes. This transfer efficiency is very important, because (although powder enameling may achieve almost 100% material utilization) powder enamel tend to lose it electrostatic properties when recycled too often or over long distances.
Studies showed that recycled powder is hydroscopic & therefore more sensitive for humidity then virgin powder and damp powder has a poor adhesion to the metal substrate. For this reason powder enameling systems are sometimes placed in a clean room with closed-loop air-conditioning system to maintain constant temperature and relative humidity.
The picture above shows the complete powder cycle at a modern powder enameling system; from automatic enamel supply from a drum unloader, sieving/mixing/fluidizing in a rotary sieve, automatic spraying, recovery of oversprayed powder with cartridge filters and recycling back into the rotary sieve via a magnetic separator.
Leading manufacturers of powder enamel systems (in alphabetic order) are : ITW Gema, Nordson & Wagner-Itep.
Ditmer Trading & Consulting B.V. provides independent consultancy to the international enameling industry. Click here for our contact details