The motivations to add powder coating capabilities are many, but the number of metal fabricators that do are small. Even with that lack of widespread adoption, some shops still feel obligated to at least consider the addition of the finishing process. For them, it’s about control.
That’s the way Rich Saddler sees it. He’s got more than 30 years of experience in finishing, both liquid and powder coating, with several of those years being spent in the very meticulous office furniture industry. Today, he runs a finishing consultancy because, as he described it, “there aren’t a lot of people where you can say, ‘Help me build this finishing line.’”
For the sake of this discussion, the focus is on powder coating, because it doesn’t generate harmful solvents or airborne pollutants. The environmental friendliness of the process typically appeals to job shops because permitting in most North American municipalities is not as big of a deal when compared to liquid processes that might actually involve solvents and potentially other pollutants.
With that in mind, Saddler pointed out all of the parties involved in the possible implantation of such a line: the pretreatment chemical suppliers, the pretreatment/application booth builder, application gun vendor, the curing oven builder, and the actual powder coating material supplier. That’s a lot of parties and rarely will one step forward to offer guidance on other aspects of the overall process.
sumber: https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/finishing/a-metal-fabricators-guide-to-bringing-powder-coating-in-house