Powder manufacturers tend to have two basic categories for powder coatings: solid colors and special effects. Solid colors are just that, a solid color – think your basic RAL shade. Special effects powder coatings, however, are a whole other world of color and creation. They a way to add some real pizzazz to a coating, some magic. Wrinkles, sparkles, metallic, translucent's, formants, the list of special effects coatings go on, and each of these coatings have their own particular finishes that offer truly unique looks to a final product. 

A lot of branding comes down to making your mark, brand, or icon recognizable. No one would mistake golden arches on a red panel for anything other than McDonald's, right? That particular contrast of warm gold on bold red grabs the eye, and those colors have become synonymous with the McDonalds brand throughout the years – decades, really – of successful advertising. With powder coatings, you can do the same. 

Powder Coating steel – the do’s and don’ts.

Powder coating aluminum is pretty straightforward. The AAMA coating specifications outline what you can expect from any performance coating applied to architectural aluminum, and warranties up to 20 years are supplied when applied to properly pretreated aluminum by a registered applicator. Easy.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that powder coatings are an excellent, tough and durable coating option for schools and educational institutions. From the ABCs to PhDs, there are so many applications for high performance powders in inspirational colors; check out just a few of them below.

IFS Coatings today announced the launch of the IFS Advance program, a collection of 5 different advanced IFS products and services designed to advance and improve the powder coating process.

Most of us aspire to own a beautiful home, and even if we’re lucky enough to own one, we still like to admire others. Powder coatings can contribute in a big way to the gorgeous aesthetics of a house, especially in terms of beautifully finished doors and windows It really doesn’t matter what your chosen style is either. From the ultra-modern, with sleek, smooth finishes in flat mattes or anodized effect silvers to the traditionally styled with time honored shades, rustic looking metal effects bronzes and light textures, powder coatings add that extra special something to the final curb appeal.

Ensuring that the powder is fluidizing properly is essential to a successful powder coating application. So what is fluidizing? Basically... it is using air to turn powder into a ‘liquid’ state. A good fluidizing hopper will often have the appearance of a simmering pot of stew. But why do we need to fluidize the powder though? Well, by fluidizing powders they become easier to apply – both in the terms of an even application and how smoothly the powder flows through the guns. Check out some of the more common fluidization issues we’ve all experienced below. Some of these are common problems, others not so much but we will delve into the problem, the cause and some prevention tips and solutions. Read more...

We all know applying powder coatings can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes, jobs go wrong. For every coating that comes out perfect, there will be a reject down the line somewhere. The more experience you gain, the risks of a blundered coating are reduced, and we’re here to nudge a bit more knowledge your way. We talked about appearance issues previously, which you can see here, but today, we are going to dig into application issues. This is when issues arise in the actual process of applying a powder coating to a substrate, the result of which is often a reject.As you will read, there is a host of potential issues, many of which stem from not having good ground. Gun settings, film build, improperly maintained equipment, and gun to part distance can all affect an application negatively as well. Read more,,,

Rejects are the bane of any job shop’s existence when applying powder coatings. Pulling apart out of the oven only to see whorls of orange peel powder, sections where the coating has sagged, or opacity issues bring a particular kind of dread alongside the question of what happened?

Before we get this train moving, we should probably define what exactly a special effect coating is. The list is pretty long, as essentially everything that is not a solid color can fit into this category. The definition of a special effect can also differ between powder manufacturers and job shops. Some of you may consider low glosses and matte finishes as special effects; others may not. Most companies will say that metallics fall under the special effects class – however, we have a whole article dedicated to metallics here and will not be focusing on them today. What we will go into today is why we use special effects, what their chemistry is, how to use them, how they can go wrong, and give you some top tips for how to use these particular coatings best. Specifically, we will cover wrinkles, translucents, dormants, river veins, multi-components and fine textures. Read more...