ECAP
Plastic
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2018
- Location
- Arizona, USA
Hi all – I've followed the automotive industry for many years, and I've noticed that they have excellent painting processes. And they seem to progress and iterate new painting processes at a fairly fast cadence – some company or another is always rolling out a new paint process, new technology, etc. Relatedly, today's cars take a lot longer to start rusting.
Is any of this paint technology trickling down to machine shops and non-automotive manufacturers? Is it possible to get automotive quality finishes on equipment and electronic cases? Do these processes have particular names, are there specific technologies in play, etc.?
I have two applications in mind: custom one-off jobs I'm going to give to machine shops, and manufactured electronic cases similar in form to a rack server (think pizza box, maybe thicker). The latter would be aluminum (probably a 606x alloy), and the former maybe 1018 or 1045 steel.
Automotive grade finishes would come in handy, especially the color range they open up and the toughness. Melonite and Tenifer type processes seem good too, but I don't think they offer anything but Model T color options (any color, so long as it's black...) Where do you go for durable color painting options for metal parts? I know about anodizing for aluminum, but the best anodizing processes have very limited color choices. It seems like where color is concerned, nothing beats paint. Is an auto body repair shop going to have better paint processes than machine shops use?
Thanks.
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Is any of this paint technology trickling down to machine shops and non-automotive manufacturers? Is it possible to get automotive quality finishes on equipment and electronic cases? Do these processes have particular names, are there specific technologies in play, etc.?
I have two applications in mind: custom one-off jobs I'm going to give to machine shops, and manufactured electronic cases similar in form to a rack server (think pizza box, maybe thicker). The latter would be aluminum (probably a 606x alloy), and the former maybe 1018 or 1045 steel.
Automotive grade finishes would come in handy, especially the color range they open up and the toughness. Melonite and Tenifer type processes seem good too, but I don't think they offer anything but Model T color options (any color, so long as it's black...) Where do you go for durable color painting options for metal parts? I know about anodizing for aluminum, but the best anodizing processes have very limited color choices. It seems like where color is concerned, nothing beats paint. Is an auto body repair shop going to have better paint processes than machine shops use?
Thanks.
Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk