by Don Stankus, operations manager, Plasti-Paint, Inc. - DeWitt, Iowa What's the largest "troubleshooting" focus at your plant? At our plant, the biggest source of quality defects in the painted part is mold-related. Plastic is painted for a variety of reasons, including aesthetics, for UV protection and to hide manufacturing defects. There are times paint can successfully … [Read more...] about Ask the Expert: Painting Plastics
Paints/Coatings
Best Practices for Painting Plastics
by Patrick Smith and Nick Strauss, Graco Inc. Plastics can be challenging materials to decorate. Different surface properties, lower surface energies and lower polarities are just some of the attributes that provide challenges not seen with metal. Not only is the paintability of plastics different from that of other substrates, it even varies among different plastics. … [Read more...] about Best Practices for Painting Plastics
Enhancing Environmental Compliance with Water-Based Coatings
by Hugh Barrett, technical consultant, APV Engineered Coatings Like companies in many industries, plastics fabricators and decorators are searching for ways to be more environmentally friendly. They're doing so not only to avoid fines or scrutiny from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or to comply with California's Prop 65, but also to reduce operating costs, … [Read more...] about Enhancing Environmental Compliance with Water-Based Coatings
Soft-Touch Paint Gaining Market Share
by Patrick Smith and Nick Strauss, Graco, Inc. It seems that end users spanning across multiple industries just can’t keep their hands off soft touch. So much, in fact, that according to a study by Future Market Insights, “The global soft-touch polyurethane coatings market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2 percent from 2015-2025.” So, what is so … [Read more...] about Soft-Touch Paint Gaining Market Share
Improving the Adhesion of UV-Curable Coatings to Plastics
by Andrew Stecher and Paul Mills, Plasmatreat US UV-cured coatings provide a number of benefits to plastic part manufacturers, including improved performance, enhanced appearance and various process advantages. However, the same densely cross-linked chemistry and rapid film formation that provide these benefits also increase the likelihood of encountering adhesion … [Read more...] about Improving the Adhesion of UV-Curable Coatings to Plastics