What Are The Main Types Of Industrial Coatings?
Industrial coatings are extremely useful products.
They keep ships from sinking. They keep buildings from crumbling. And they keep things from sliding around in the bed of your truck.
They are usually made of various polymers. And they are used to protect metal and concrete from erosion.
But if there are many types of industrial coatings, what are they?
We're here to discuss and categorize these coatings so that you have a comprehensive overview of industrial coatings.
The aircraft and aerospace coatings industry is a major sector. In 2008 it was valued at around $140 million. And 73% of that was the commercial aircraft industry.
Paint on an airplane isn't there just to make it look pretty. Although it certainly can. It's there to protect the airplane or jet.
It also needs to be a light material. Airplanes cannot have thick coats of paint on their wings. This effects the flight of the craft.
The paint used on aircraft is actually a variety of materials. This includes primers, lacquers, enamels, and finishing products.
Unlike other industrial coatings, airplane coating needs to be both easily strippable and durable. This is a challenge to create, as you can imagine.
If a company can strike this balance, they can shorten the repaint time of an aircraft.
Aircraft were designed to fly. This may seem like common sense. But if an airplane sits on the ground for too long, gravity begins to work on the wings and the fuselage.
Getting the repaint time down to a shorter interval gets the airplane back in the air before it can begin to fall apart.
In cars, there is a coating applied during manufacture and a coating applied after an accident.
The manufacturer's coating is applied a controlled environment. There is very little risk of contamination or defect.
When your car gets refinished in an auto body shop, the environment is not controlled.
The industrial coatings they use are different as well. They use a refinish. These refinishes are usually tailored specifically to your make and color. They are supposed to match the manufacturer's coating as best as possible.
Right now, the food industry is trying to replace current industrial coatings in food and beverage cans with safer alternatives.
Can coating in the food industry is about as challenging as airplane coating. If not more so.
The can coating needs to do several things to be effective:
The cans are coated on both sides.
Epoxy-based coatings are the most popular of the can industrial coatings. And early epoxy coatings were found to leak traces of harmful chemicals into the food.
The manufacturers now use epoxy coatings that do not have these harmful chemicals.
This is a manufacturing process that uses industrial coatings in large quantities.
A coil is a massive roll of metal that looks like a roll of duct tape.
Coil coating machines take this coil, unrolls it, cleans it, treats it, primes it, and paints it. Then it rolls it right back up on the other end.
These coils are then sent off to manufacturers. The manufacturers cut up the coils to use in various parts.
These are used for automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer).
Steel will rust if it's placed in water for too long. And it will rust faster if it's placed in salt water.
We make a lot of our large seafaring vessels with steel. And if steel does not play well with water, then we need to separate the two.
This is where marine industrial coating comes in.
Marine coating is designed to be durable. It cannot flake off for a long time. It also has to not increase the drag of the boat in the water.
Marine coatings are actually designed to lessen the drag of the boat in the water.
But boats aren't just coated on their bottoms. Industrial coatings can be used for traction coating. When you're on the deck of a tanker and waves are rolling, you don't want to be sliding around. You might just go overboard.
But marine coatings for ship decks are made with the amiable pirate in mind. They will keep those sea legs from slipping.
Steel does need to stay safe from fire when it's holding up a building.
Intumescent industrial coatings keep steel safe in case of a fire. The coating reacts to fire, it releases a chemical foam. This foam hardens and carbonizes. This creates a fire impervious layer around the steel.
The coating maintains the structure and integrity of a building despite fire damage.
These coatings are strictly regulated. They need to work perfectly in order to do their jobs.
Intumescent coatings aren't the most aesthetically pleasing coatings. They aren't smooth and will look rough upon application.
If we didn't have industrial coatings, we couldn't have bridges.
High-performance coatings are made to last a long time. And they protect concrete structures, oil rigs, stadium structures, warehouse structures, and steel work on bridges.
These coatings can aesthetically please as well. They have to be in some cases since most of these structures are outside and in plain view.
They are designed to withstand the worst weather. And they add to the durability of the structure where they coated.
There are still more types of industrial coatings in the world. But we covered the major ones. Without these coatings, our world could not operate.
If you're interested in industrial coatings for either distribution or use, contact us and let us know.
They keep ships from sinking. They keep buildings from crumbling. And they keep things from sliding around in the bed of your truck.
They are usually made of various polymers. And they are used to protect metal and concrete from erosion.
But if there are many types of industrial coatings, what are they?
We're here to discuss and categorize these coatings so that you have a comprehensive overview of industrial coatings.
1. Aircraft And Aerospace Industrial Coatings
The aircraft and aerospace coatings industry is a major sector. In 2008 it was valued at around $140 million. And 73% of that was the commercial aircraft industry.
Paint on an airplane isn't there just to make it look pretty. Although it certainly can. It's there to protect the airplane or jet.
It also needs to be a light material. Airplanes cannot have thick coats of paint on their wings. This effects the flight of the craft.
The paint used on aircraft is actually a variety of materials. This includes primers, lacquers, enamels, and finishing products.
Unlike other industrial coatings, airplane coating needs to be both easily strippable and durable. This is a challenge to create, as you can imagine.
If a company can strike this balance, they can shorten the repaint time of an aircraft.
Aircraft were designed to fly. This may seem like common sense. But if an airplane sits on the ground for too long, gravity begins to work on the wings and the fuselage.
Getting the repaint time down to a shorter interval gets the airplane back in the air before it can begin to fall apart.
2. Automobile Finish
In cars, there is a coating applied during manufacture and a coating applied after an accident.
The manufacturer's coating is applied a controlled environment. There is very little risk of contamination or defect.
When your car gets refinished in an auto body shop, the environment is not controlled.
The industrial coatings they use are different as well. They use a refinish. These refinishes are usually tailored specifically to your make and color. They are supposed to match the manufacturer's coating as best as possible.
3. Can Coating
Right now, the food industry is trying to replace current industrial coatings in food and beverage cans with safer alternatives.
Can coating in the food industry is about as challenging as airplane coating. If not more so.
The can coating needs to do several things to be effective:
- It needs to be universal in application to all types of cans.
- It has to prevent the migration of chemicals to the food or beverage.
- It must stick to the sides of the can even when the can is bent or squished.
- It must resist the corrosion of various more acidic foods.
- The coating must be able to withstand sterilization.
- And it must be capable of preserving the food for several years.
The cans are coated on both sides.
Epoxy-based coatings are the most popular of the can industrial coatings. And early epoxy coatings were found to leak traces of harmful chemicals into the food.
The manufacturers now use epoxy coatings that do not have these harmful chemicals.
4. Coil Coatings For OEM and Other Manufacturing Processes.
This is a manufacturing process that uses industrial coatings in large quantities.
A coil is a massive roll of metal that looks like a roll of duct tape.
Coil coating machines take this coil, unrolls it, cleans it, treats it, primes it, and paints it. Then it rolls it right back up on the other end.
These coils are then sent off to manufacturers. The manufacturers cut up the coils to use in various parts.
These are used for automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer).
5. Marine Coatings
Steel will rust if it's placed in water for too long. And it will rust faster if it's placed in salt water.
We make a lot of our large seafaring vessels with steel. And if steel does not play well with water, then we need to separate the two.
This is where marine industrial coating comes in.
Marine coating is designed to be durable. It cannot flake off for a long time. It also has to not increase the drag of the boat in the water.
Marine coatings are actually designed to lessen the drag of the boat in the water.
But boats aren't just coated on their bottoms. Industrial coatings can be used for traction coating. When you're on the deck of a tanker and waves are rolling, you don't want to be sliding around. You might just go overboard.
But marine coatings for ship decks are made with the amiable pirate in mind. They will keep those sea legs from slipping.
6. Intumescent Coatings
Steel does need to stay safe from fire when it's holding up a building.
Intumescent industrial coatings keep steel safe in case of a fire. The coating reacts to fire, it releases a chemical foam. This foam hardens and carbonizes. This creates a fire impervious layer around the steel.
The coating maintains the structure and integrity of a building despite fire damage.
These coatings are strictly regulated. They need to work perfectly in order to do their jobs.
Intumescent coatings aren't the most aesthetically pleasing coatings. They aren't smooth and will look rough upon application.
7. High-Performance Industrial Coating
If we didn't have industrial coatings, we couldn't have bridges.
High-performance coatings are made to last a long time. And they protect concrete structures, oil rigs, stadium structures, warehouse structures, and steel work on bridges.
These coatings can aesthetically please as well. They have to be in some cases since most of these structures are outside and in plain view.
They are designed to withstand the worst weather. And they add to the durability of the structure where they coated.
Conclusion
There are still more types of industrial coatings in the world. But we covered the major ones. Without these coatings, our world could not operate.
If you're interested in industrial coatings for either distribution or use, contact us and let us know.