Chris:
I am powder coating my smaller parts at the house and using the oven in the
kitchen. The parts get to 400 F though only for about 20 minutes at the
most. They probably don't even have to stay hot that long. My guess is
that it is not nearly long enough and hot enough to effect any granular changes
in the material. Most of the small aluminum parts don't impress me as being in
highly stressed applications anyway. I'm not loosing any sleep over
it.
Steve Hagar
A143
Mesa, AZ
----- Original Message -----
From:
Subject: Powder coating
aluminum - help!
I believe we went over this previously here, but I want to be doubly
sure. I just sent out all the wing/flap hardware to be powder coated
gloss white (W19, W20, OR3, etc.)
My wife, who works for Midwest Express Airlines, says two of the guys on
the maintenance floor said that the powder coating process would screw up the
heat treat of the aluminum. Now, I remember looking up the age
hardening time and temps for aluminum, and from what I remember, it was quite a
bit hotter than what the powder coating oven runs at(which is about 375 to 400
deg. F).
Before I go and wreck a bunch of parts, I want to be doubly sure that I'll
be OK. Powder coat is far superior to paint in both protection and
durability, so I'd like to be able to use it.
Thanks for the info, gang.
Chris and Sue
A159
--- Steve Hagar
--- hagargs@earthlink.net
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