Powder Coating Laser Cut Edges

We have started manufacturing parts using a laser.

Powder coating laser cut edges.

Powder coatings don t like to adhere to this oxidized surface. The parts have a carbon build on the edges our present system is an alkaline rinse phosphate rinse seal. Laser cut material edges are typically high quality but there will be a minor burr on the bottom side of the cut. Nope this is a first time question.

This system will not remove the carbon. News machining fabrication laser cutting powder coating jobs contact laser cutting. Nitrogen purity levels play a large role in edge and part quality. When oxide scale created by laser cutting is painted over the part being finished is susceptible to adhesion failures.

The issue with paint adhesion in this area is due to the formation of heat scale on the edge of the steel. Cutting steel with a laser offers many advantages including precision speed less rejects and low labor costs. Machine sits in the middle of four laser cutting machines. An ongoing discussion from 1999 through 2015.

Today the 107 5 by 59 1 by 60 2 in. The absence of oxidation improves downstream processes such as powder coating and welding because better adhesion and weldability can be achieved. Laser cutting is a thermal process and. Laser cutting machines provide manufacturers with an effective means to cut blanks of all shapes with burr free edges in a matter of seconds.

When chipping was first seen on powder coated parts many people thought it was because the edge was so sharp. After reading many different views on this and my own opinion is that paint will not adhere fully to a sharp edge. The chipping you refer to with powder coating is a loss of adhesion due to little if any pretreatment on the laser cut edge. We have a bystronic bysprint 3015 6kw fiber laser cutting machine at our main facility in petersburg which can cut sheet sizes up to 5 x 10 1500 x 3000 mm.

You can improve a fiber laser blanking s cut edge by optimizing the assist gases and nozzle technologies. Truthfully some of the lasers are cutting with nitrogen most of the time but for those laser cut parts with an oxide layer on the edges the machine is more than able to keep up with the parts flow. Acid pickling is one method that coaters can use to prepare their laser cut parts prior to finishing them. The only way around this would be to put a chamfer onto all sharp edges this is a massive cost and process change.

Wayne duguay houston. As steel is cut with a laser a very thin hard oxide is formed on the sharp edge. Powder coating systems give manufacturers an environmentally friendly and cost effective way to apply a finish to metal products that stands up to the rigors of the most challenging environments. Pretreating laser cut material for powder coating.

To avoid paint chips on the finished part edge remove the laser scale prior to finishing. However one of the problems inherent to laser cutting is the blue oxide edge it leaves on carbon steel.