The History of Coatings and Paints
|
|
|
The History of Coatings and Paints
Man’s use of paint to change his home goes back to the stone ages. The cave paintings in Lascaux, southern France, and Altamira, northern Spain, provide evidence of the earliest wall decorations in human history. The walls showed images of animals that were hunted then, and the paints were made from animal fat, colored soils, soot and grease.
|
|
|
|
The early Egyptians formulated paint for their tombs that has remained brilliantly colored to this day, using ground glass and semi-precious stone, lead, colored earth and even animal blood mixed with oils, glues and fats.
Later in history (500 B.C.), bugs were used for paints, and the word lacquer comes from the resin secreted by the lac bug (see picture to left). The term "lac" used in the word lacquer comes from Sanskrit and means "100,000," or the great number of insects needed to make the lacquer.
Lacquer was used to create very fine art work in China and Japan thousands of years ago. In the 1500’s, the almost 2,000-year-old Chinese art works were brought to Europe by the Portugese.
|
|
Paintings created new demands for paints during the Renaissance and many different colors were formulated and perfected. Lead and arsenic were naturally occurring ores used to make paints extremely durable, with color retention lasting for centuries. And these common pigments made painting a rather dangerous profession for hundreds of years.
|
|
We next move forward to the Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s which drove the demands for new paints, coatings and finishes away from the Art world and into the industrial sector. Paints and Coatings were needed for metal, but these new finishes simply did not last long enough. And while many new finishes were developed and used during World Wars I & II, safety issues were a growing concern. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s the fumes from these products contained and released volatile organic compounds. The metal finishing and coating industries were under tremendous pressure to find a more environmentally friendly way to apply paint and coatings.
|
|
The Breakthrough: Powder Coating
It was in the mid-1940’s that a way was discovered to bake dry powdered thermoplastic coatings onto metal surfaces, as a more efficient alternative to fluid-based paints. The coated part was heated in a powder coating oven, and the part only needed to be cooled afterward to finish the part. The Powder Coat process has rapidly grown since the 1940’s, with improvements in the spray processes and the powder coating oven.
What is Powder Coating?
Powder coating is a dry finishing process. Powder coating can be applied and baked in a powder coating oven in less than an hour. The powder coating process involves three basic steps:
1. Part cleaning
2. Powder application (Spray)
3. Oven curing
|
|
How Powder Coating Works:
Powder coatings use a spray gun, which applies an electrostatic charge to the powder particles, which are then attracted to the grounded metal part. After the application of the powder coating, the parts enter a curing oven where the coating melts and adheres to the part.
The Durability of Powder Coating
Powder coating is used for
all Solas Ray LED fixtures. It provides a more durable finish than liquid paints can offer, while still providing an attractive finish. Powder coated products are resistant to impact, moisture, chemicals, ultraviolet light, and other extreme weather conditions. Powder coating reduces the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other fixture wear issues.
Powder coating is tough.
It looks great, and it lasts for a
long time.
|
|
The Durability of Powder Coating
Powder coating is used for
all Solas Ray LED fixtures. It provides a more durable finish than liquid paints can offer, while still providing an attractive finish. Powder coated products are resistant to impact, moisture, chemicals, ultraviolet light, and other extreme weather conditions. Powder coating reduces the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other fixture wear issues.
Powder coating is tough.
It looks great, and it lasts for a
long
time.
|
|
Bill Nagengast, Lighting Engineer
Solas Ray Lighting
Holds over 20 patents in the lighting industry.
|
|
|
To Opt Out and No Longer Receive this Information, Click Unsubscribe at Bottom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
