Powder Coated Tough - Fall/Winter 2007 - (Page 24) NO MORE Rework A one-step non-aqueous pretreatment process works for this Bridgeport, Mich., powder coater. Rework is now a part of his past. Could it be right for your process? EDITED BY SHARON SPIELMAN S teve Boehm, owner of Bridgeport Powder Works in Bridgeport, Mich., did not start out as a powder coater. He had been a patrolman on the Bridgeport police force for roughly 20 years and was in the process of changing to another job in the same field when he was involved in a motorcycle accident that severed one arm and partially paralyzed the other. After being placed on permanent disability, he was offered re-training and took up computer science and mechanical design. While retraining and studying, he also began to “dabble” in powder coating. Over time, his powder coating business grew, and he found the need for additional personnel and more space. He used his mechanical design training to design a larger oven, which he used for several years before again outgrowing his facilities. By this time, Boehm also had become aware of his need for improved pretreatment, because from time to time he ran into coverage and adhesion problems that caused him to spend significant time and effort reworking parts. When researching the pretreatment process, Boehm says he learned about two-, three-, five-, seven- and nine-step processes, with tanks for each step. “I From patrolman to powder coater: Steve Boehm, owner of Bridgeport Powder Works in Bridgeport, Mich., was a patrolman on the Bridgeport police force for roughly 20 years before a motorcycle accident forced Steve to look at other career options. also discovered that some [pretreatments] were heated and all were monitored and sampled continuously,” he says. “There were cleaners, acids, alkalines, iron or zinc phosphates, and plenty of water rinses in between. And the tanks would eventually have to be dumped, cleaned and refilled, and the old solutions placed in approved containers to be shipped to approved locations by approved personnel.” Boehm says all of this seemed to be confusing and costly, but then during an online search, he discovered a one-step organic phosphating process which, he says, claimed to be a truly one-step, norinse process that didn’t need heating or changing (see sidebar). “This all seemed too good to be true,” he says. Boehm requested a sample and ran tests, and then worked with TriMech Finishing Solutions, an area representative, to design and fabricate a system. “It turned out to be a snap to put everything together,” Boehm says. Although a one-step system is simple in design, because it is single-stage and ambient temperature, it is important to understand that there are differences in equipment and design, and it is important to work with someone who knows the equipment requirements. Differences include an ample freeboard to keep the vapors in the tank; minimal exhaust to avoid extracting (and thus wasting) chemical; and the tank, pumps and fans must be constructed of stainless steel or polypropylene, which are not affected by the chemical. Pumps and fans are smaller because of the lesser system requirements, and they should be variable speed. Boehm says his decision-making was driven not only by product performance but also by the simplicity of the process and the limited amount of 24 Powder Coated Tough
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