The Environmentally Responsible Choice
‘Steeling' the show - powder coating performance on steel
Powder coating aluminum is pretty straightforward. There are the AAMA coating specifications that outline what you can expect from any organic coating applied to aluminum, and warranties up to 20 years are supplied when applied to properly pretreated aluminum by a registered applicator. Easy.
But what about steel?
Navigating coating steel doesn’t have to be difficult. Check out our five most frequently asked questions about powder coating steel
1. Can you powder coat steel?
Simple answer? Yes. There’s usually a little more to it than the simple pretreat and single coat application for aluminum, but powder coating delivers hard working, beautiful protection to steel all the time.
The follow up question here is always “what about stainless steel”. The answer is yes you can powder coat stainless steel, but it’s not as easy as other types of steel and requires a good and experienced coater to do the work.
Powder is always a factory applied finish and coating steel is no different. The substrate preparation depends on the type of steel used, but generally an etch and blast occurs, followed by a powder primer (like the IFS KW primer) and then the powder top coat. If corrosion is a concern, then a zinc rich powder primer should be used.
2. Types of powder
The types of powder available for steel are exactly the same as aluminum. The powders themselves will deliver similar performance in terms of color and gloss retention as they do on aluminum. Plus the superior scratch and mar resistance. What differs are things like corrosion protection. Therefore, Fluoropolymer powders like IFS 500FP deliver superior performance, long life exterior color and gloss retention. Super Durable powders offer what’s often classed as “high performance’ color and gloss retention; essentially, not as good a fluoropolymer protection but significantly better than the interior grade standard polyester powder performance.
3. Are there limitations on colors and effects?
The great news here is the answer is not really! The same rules as coating aluminum apply! So for exterior applications where superior performance Fluoropolymers are required, some of the brighter pinks/purples, oranges and reds are more difficult to achieve. This is simply because the pigments that will meet the 20 year color retention requirements in these brighter shades are not available. Other than that there is a lot of choice and mica/metallics and some textures are also available.
With Super Durables or interior grade Standard Polyester powders, the world is your oyster! There’s a huge range of colors and effects available – at IFS we have over 76,000 colors in our database so there’s plenty to choose from!
4. Are the environmental benefits of powder the same if applied to steel?
For the most part, yes! The benefits of the actual coating – no solvents and therefore negligible VOCs, no toxic waste created during application, no chrome required, etc. are exactly the same. Where it may differ slightly to powder coating aluminum is in the number of coats. Adding a powder primer obviously adds another layer of coating – and this may add another cure cycle resulting in more energy used.
5. Will I get a warranty for coating performance on steel?
In most cases, unfortunately, the answer is no. At least not from the coating manufacturer, though the applicator may provide a warranty. Warranties tend to be applicable on aluminum when the coating is applied by a registered applicator.