E-Coating / Powder Coating Recommendations
 

Anyone have any recommendations for e-coating or powder coating businesses in NE Indiana / SW Michigan / NW Ohio (not too far from Ft. Wayne, IN)?

Thoughts?

What is e coating? Epoxy coating? I am curious as to what this is. Is it like powder coating?

E-coating is another name for electrocoating, electropainting, or electrophoretic lacquering. It is used to deposit a paint or lacquer coating (rather than metal, as is deposited by electroplating). It's more of an application method for paint or lacquer than a coating per se.

Parts are dipped into a vat of the lacquer or paint and are electrified in order to promote a reaction at the surface which deposits the paint. Depending on the chemistry, the workpiece can be anodic or cathodic, but these days it's usually cathodic, which has given the process still another common name "CED coating" (cathodic electrodeposition).

It is used on very large parts, such as automobile bodies, to apply a primer coat that doesn't miss any spots, and it's also used on smaller parts such as lamps and jewelry to deposit a thin and durable lacquer (electrophoretic lacquer) as a decorative finish. OEMs tend to use it on current fabrication (cars, etc).

See: http://www.dekalbmetal.com/products/e-coat/

One clarification on ecoating.

There is no reaction at the surface, just a neutralization of the charge. The ecoat batch is charged positivity with rectifiers to which the negatively grounded body is submerged in the bath. The coating is then drawn to the substrate until the negative charge is sufficiently neutralized. This works easily on the external surfaces, but for the interior areas throwpower becomes important.

Kerry