Alumunium Lebih Berwarna dengan Powder Coating

sumber : www.layindoaluminium.com/2011/12/kusen-aluminium-powder-coating.html

Aneka Pilihan Warna Powder Coating

Produk aluminium yang kita ditemukan di pasar hanya memiliki tiga warna dasar yakni: polos (warna asli), hitam dan coklat. Itulah tiga warna dasar aluminium. Berlaku untuk semua merek termasuk Alexindo, Superex, YKK, dsb. Dan khusus untuk produk YKK, warna yang ada diberikan lapisan tambahan sehingga membuatnya tampak mengkilat atau mengkilap. Kami rasa Anda sudah paham betul soal produk aluminium YKK.

Nah, sekarang pertanyaannya adalah: "Bagaimana jika kita membutuhkan warna khusus sesuai dengan warna ruangan, mood pemilik bangunan, permintaan klien, interior eksterior atau desain sesuai bentuk bangunan?"

Tak perlu bingung. Jawabannya adalah menggunakan produk aluminium yang diberikan warna baru yang sering dikenal dengan istilah "aluminium powder coating". Lalu apa maksudnya? Kami akan jelaskan di bawah ini.

Kusen Aluminium Powder Coating

Contoh Kusen Hasil Powder Coating

Powder coating adalah sebuah proses teknik pengecatan atau pewarnaan yang menggunakan teknik khusus. Biasanya adalah disemprot dalam bentuk bubuk cair dengan suhu tinggi. Proses ini sedikit mirip dengan semprotan sederhana yang kita lakukan mengunakan cat kaleng semprot pylox. Cairan cat keluar dalam bentuk butiran-butiran halus. Beda dengan penggunaan kuas bukan? Hanya saja ini dilakukan di pabrik dengan suhu ruangan tertentu dan alat-alat tertentu. Pengecatan teknik powder coating ini akan menghasilkan cat yang lebih sempurna, rata, melekat lebih lama dan tentunya cepat kering. Sistem inilah yang digunakan dalam menghasilkan kusen aluminium aneka warna yang sering Anda temukan di bangunan-bangunan tertentu.

Sebenarnya powder coating bukan saja dipergunakan untuk pewarnaan kusen aluminium melainkan juga seperti untuk body mobil, velg, kap lampu, body pesawat, dsb. Lucunya, sering kali orang menyebut powder coating dengan istilah "poder koting", "foder koting" atau kadang disebut "aluminium koting". Yang benar adalah powder coating.

Jadi Anda tak perlu kuatir jika ada klien atau Anda sendiri membutuhkan kusen aluminium dengan warna tertentu. Kami bisa melayani Anda dengan produk kusen aluminium powder coating ini. Biasanya jenis aluminium yang dipergunakan adalah warna polos dan jarang menggunakan produk YKK karena akan sama saja bohong sudah mengkilap diwarnai lagi. Apalagi produk kusen YKK tergolong lebih mahal harganya. Karena aluminium polos akan diwarna dengan sistem powder coating, otomatis akan dikenakan biaya tambahan sesuai dengan harga pasar. Lama waktu pengerjaan tidak bisa dipastikan karena tergantung pada kesibukan pabrik aluminium atau pabrik pengecatan tersebut. Makin banyak yang antri untuk diwarnai apalagi dengan warna  yang berbeda-beda maka sudah pasti makin lama. Biasanya paling cepat kurang lebih 10 hari. 

Tampak pintu lipat aluminium untuk interior ruangan dengan warna putih hasil powder coating. Cantik sekali. Putih sudah pasti warna powder coating karena warna dasar kusen aluminium tidak ada putih melainkan silver (polos). Tetapi jika Anda menggunakan warna ruangan yang cocok dengan coklat atau hitam tentu tidak membutuhkan powder coating.

Contoh jendela casement untuk eksterior yang menggunakan kusen powder coating. Kebetulan bangunan ini juga memilih warna putih untuk menimbulkan kontras yang tampak indah. Intinya memerlukan warna apa saja bisa.

POWDER COATING

Powder coating is a type of coating that is applied as a free-flowing, dry powder. The main difference between a conventional liquid paint and a powder coating is that the powder coating does not require a solvent to keep the binder and filler parts in a liquid suspension form. The coating is typically applied electrostatically and is then cured under heat to allow it to flow and form a "skin". The powder may be a thermoplastic or a thermoset polymer. It is usually used to create a hard finish that is tougher than conventional paint. Powder coating is mainly used for coating of metals, such as "whiteware," aluminium extrusions, and automobile and bicycle parts. Newer technologies allow other materials, such as MDF (medium-density fibreboard), to be powder coated using different methods.

Advantages and disadvantages

There are several advantages of powder coating over conventional liquid coatings:

1. Powder coatings emit zero or near zero volatile organic compounds (VOC).
2. Powder coatings can produce much thicker coatings than conventional liquid coatings without running or sagging.
3. Powder coating overspray can be recycled and thus it is possible to achieve nearly 100% use of the coating.
4. Powder coating production lines produce less hazardous waste than conventional liquid coatings.
5. Capital equipment and operating costs for a powder line are generally less than for conventional liquid lines.
6. Powder coated items generally have fewer appearance differences between horizontally coated surfaces and vertically coated surfaces than liquid coated items.
7. A wide range of specialty effects is easily accomplished which would be impossible to achieve with other coating processes.

While powder coatings have many advantages over other coating processes, there are some disadvantages to the technology. While it is relatively easy to apply thick coatings which have smooth, texture-free surfaces, it is not as easy to apply smooth thin films. As the film thickness is reduced, the film becomes more and more orange peeled in texture due to the particle size and glass transition temperature (TG) of the powder. On smaller jobs, the cost of powder coating will be higher than spray painting.

For optimum material handling and ease of application, most powder coatings have a particle size in the range of 30 to 50 μm and a TG around 200°C^[For such powder coatings, film build-ups of greater than 50 μm may be required to obtain an acceptably smooth film. The surface texture which is considered desirable or acceptable depends on the end product. Many manufacturers actually prefer to have a certain degree of orange peel since it helps to hide metal defects that have occurred during manufacture, and the resulting coating is less prone to showing fingerprints.

There are very specialized operations where powder coatings of less than 30 micrometres or with a TG below 40°C are used in order to produce smooth thin films. One variation of the dry powder coating process, the Powder Slurry process, combines the advantages of powder coatings and liquid coatings by dispersing very fine powders of 1–5 micrometre particle size into water, which then allows very smooth, low film thickness coatings to be produced.

Powder coatings have a major advantage in that the overspray can be recycled. However, if multiple colors are being sprayed in a single spray booth, this may limit the ability to recycle the overspray.

Types of powder coatings

There are two main categories of powder coatings: thermosets and thermoplastics. The thermosetting variety incorporates a cross-linker into the formulation. When the powder is baked, it reacts with other chemical groups in the powder to polymerize, improving the performance properties. The thermoplastic variety does not undergo any additional reactions during the baking process, but rather only flows out into the final coating.

The most common polymers used are polyester, polyurethane, polyester-epoxy (known as hybrid), straight epoxy (fusion bonded epoxy) and acrylics.