Powder Coating Guide

Powder Coating Guide

So, you have questions about Powder Coating!

Let’s start with the obvious one that sets us apart from other companies - why not just anodize?

This can be broken down into a few simple bullet points:

• Availability
• Surface protection
• Colors!

The process for coating extrusions

Anodizing - Others
Aluminum anodizing enhances the natural oxide coating present on aluminum by making it more uniform, increasing its protective qualities against corrosion and wear. The process begins with stripping any impurities and the existing oxide layer, then immersing it in an electrolyte bath. The bath is subjected to a direct current, which causes the aluminum to release ions that combine with oxygen ions to form a thick, consistent oxide layer on the extrusions. The thickness of this layer can be adjusted based on factors like current density and time. As the process continues, pores develop in the oxide layer, enhancing its protective abilities, but also allowing dye to be added. However, due to the non-uniform dispersion of pore, there may be some variability between batches, and even amongst extrusions in the same tank.

Powder Coating – Our Method
Powder coating uses a very fine powder - a combination of polymers, hardeners, colorants, and other additives are blended together. This mixture is then extruded, hardened, and converted into small pieces, which are then milled into a uniform, flour-like powder. Once the extrusions are cleaned and prepped, they are hung from a negatively charged rack that attracts the positively charged colored powder. This polarity causes the powder to form a thin uniform coat over the part that is being sprayed. Once the parts are covered thoroughly, the rack is moved into a specialized oven and the parts are baked at high temperatures to harden the coating. 

While both are similar processes, producing very similar results, the sheer number of colorways and finishes, without sacrificing the quality of protection, make powder coating the best option for us. 

The drawbacks to powder coating

While powder coating is durable and colorful it does have a few major draw backs over anodizing. The powder coating is on average thicker than anodizing - anodizing produces a surface coating that is on average 5-25 microns. (0.005-0.025mm) while powder coating is on average 60-80 microns (0.06-0.08mm). This difference may be minor, but they do still add some thickness to the extrusions. 
The other main drawback is that due to the powder coating process, the inner channels of the extrusions will always have slightly less coating than the faces. Without being too technical, the magnetic field produced by the sprayer and the frame causes a void where the powder cannot enter. We do however take all precautions to minimize this.

How to pick a powder for coating!

Now were getting to the fun stuff! From here the sky is the limit… except for two caveats (We know, bummer).

At this time, we cannot spray multiple coats. This means that if you find a powder you like but it's a two-stage color (base coat and clear coat) we would be unable to duplicate the photos you see on the listing. For example, you like this absolutely fabulous purple and would like to use it. However, if you read in the description, this requires a base coat of high gloss black, so we would be unable to do it at this time. But fear not, with a little extra browsing you can find colors like this lovely purple, which may not be as glittery, but is something we can spray! 

Our base extrusions are either black anodize or clear anodize. When doing custom colors, these are what we consider the base coat for your choice. Some coatings will have wildly different effects and colors dependent on how they interact with the base coat, though we promise you, we are pretty good at getting the base color right for your chosen powder.

And our final rule is we only order powders by the pound. So the sites we have listed below will be the best bet but feel free to shop anywhere just keep these things in mind!

The best/worst part!

Now you need to pick a color, which can be daunting. We have two sites we primarily order powder from and this cost is included in your frame. We will order it for you and have it ready for your frame before goes to spray.

• Prismatic Powders! This one is by and large where we get lots of our colors. Their sorting features and just sheer number of choices will undoubtedly cause the worst part of this process, decision paralysis! Prismatic has over 6000 colors on offer and quite a large selection of those are single stage colors.
   
• All Powder Paints! This is the runner up with over 2000 colors on offer and, again, most of them single stage.
   
• PowderByThePound! Similar to the two above but just as amazing!

If there are not enough choices for you, good news - these are not the only sites you must use. If you find a powder you love on another site, just let us know. We would be happy to order and spray it for you!

If you have made it this far, thank you! We can't wait to help you along with your projects and see what you make. We also encourage you to come join us on our discord and see the fantastic builds others have made, get help picking colors, or just come hang out with the guys doing the work! Can't wait to meet you! 

DLLPDF Team - Discord Link