Braving the harsh environment in industry

Anyone who enters a production hall may quickly notice what a harsh industrial environment means: noise and vibrations, dust and aerosols in the air are perceptible and put a strain on the body. And the surfaces of the machines and tools also have to withstand a lot.

The challenges for coatings on machines are high. They often start before the machine is set up at its destination. If a machine is transported by sea, it is exposed to salty air. This is extremely aggressive for surfaces and no customer wants to receive a machine with flash rust. Once production has started, the surface has to withstand other stresses. First and foremost are chemical resistance to oils, acids, alkalis, greases or cleaning agents, mechanical resistance such as abrasion resistance, scratch resistance and impact resistance.

With all these demands, economic efficiency should not fall by the wayside. This is where aspects such as the number of process steps, including pre-treatment, and the respective effort involved come into play. For example, single-layer systems without primer require careful chemical or mechanical preparation of the components so that there are no problems with adhesion later. In order to make the optimal decision, a whole series of points must be clarified in advance, such as the desired colour shade, specifications for the powder quality, determination of the surface finish, the gloss level, the functional layer thickness, other mechanical values and the necessary chemical pre-treatment.