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You can use powder coating in quite a few places at home. It will last you 15 to 20 years too. Read on to find out the whys and hows!
When renovating a room in your home, there are countless changes you can make to either big or small aspects of the room. Most of the time, these changes are cosmetic, but they can also have some additional benefits. Changing the color of things in your home is often the most popular and simplest change people make, either painting a wall or smaller items.
While most people would do is go down to their local hardware store and pick up a tin of paint, there are other options available to you when it comes to painting items at home. In this article, we are going to look at powder coating. We have asked for advice from Stovrite, who are experts in powder coating, to provide some information on the process and how some of your items at home can benefit from it.
Table of Contents
What is Powder Coating?
Powder coating is a process that applies a dry paint powder to the surface of a metal. The process uses several techniques that contribute to the benefits of powder coating, which we will look at later. The main part of the process to understand is the way the dry paint powder is applied. Using an electrostatic gun and compressed air to apply the paint powder to the metal is a key part of the process.
By using an electrostatic gun, which contains an electrode, the paint powder is charged before it arrives at the metal. The target metal also has a charge passed through it to earth the metal. This creates a difference in charge, which helps to attract the paint powder to the metal. Once this has been done, and the entire piece of metal is coated in paint powder, it is placed in a large curing oven where the item is baked. This baking process is vital as it not only strengthens the bond between the paint but also between the paint and the metal.
How Long Does Powder Coating Last?
One of the main benefits of powder coating, when compared to traditional paint solutions, is the increased durability of the finish. Paint is known to crack, and for a variety of reasons, this is problematic. For household items, cracked paint is an inconvenience that causes more work for you. Once the paint has cracked and starts to flake, it is very noticeable, and for household items, you see every day, this can become annoying.
As powder coating was originally developed for and has been used widely in industrial sectors, the coating has a long lifespan. Most providers will estimate their powder coating will last between 15-20 years, however, because everyone will have different needs and uses from the products they have coated, this can change. What is well known is that powder coating is prised for its durability in challenging weather conditions.
Items You Can Powder Coat at Home
As mentioned, powder coating is used to paint a variety of different metal objects for industrial use in different sectors, but it can also be used on everyday household items. One of the most popular is garden furniture. Because of powder coatings durability, it makes it a much better option for metal garden furniture which needs to be stored outside.
Tables and chairs made out of wood or plastic need to be stored or covered during winter months, otherwise, they can discolor and could be damaged by the cold. With metal garden furniture which has been painted with standard liquid paint, this can crack and chip with the temperature changes it will be exposed to being stored outside. With powder-coated metal garden furniture, it can be left outside all year round, without a cover if necessary, and it will hold up better than other options.
Another popular item found in almost everyone’s home is a radiator. No matter if they are in bathrooms, kitchens, hallways, or bedrooms, the purpose of a radiator is to help heat the room and if needed dry clothes or towels.
What some people may not have considered when buying a new radiator, or restoring an old one, is the impact on heat output that the radiator coating can have. People may like to have a shiny metal radiator for design reasons, but a powder-coated radiator actually is more useful in giving off more heat. This is because a powder-coated surface has a higher emissivity level, this is the measurement of a surface’s ability to release energy as heat. With that in mind, if you’re looking to get a radiator which will emit more heat, a powder-coated one could be a good option.
The boor and cupboard handles might not be the most obvious item to think of when making changes to your home. While these little pieces of metal may seem fairly insignificant, you’ll actually be surprised how many times you use them during the day.
Painting door handles is actually quite a popular design choice, particularly in matte black. Considering how often these handles are touches each day, it’s easy for them to become scratched or chipped with traditional paint. Using powder coating, which can achieve a matte finish, to paint door handles can create a beautiful effect and look great, especially against a white door to offer some great contrast in colors.
It’s important to remember that just because something wasn’t listed here from around your home doesn’t mean that it couldn’t benefit from powder coating. Anything that is a metal can be powder coated, and if you take a look around your home, you’ll likely see a lot of metal objects. As powder coating produces a durable, high-quality, smooth finish, its uses are wide-ranging. Hopefully, this article will have given you some more information and ideas for how you could use it in the future.
