Hi Guys,
Long time no see... I have not been able to get on here in a really long time. We've been incredibly busy!
Fred sent me an e-mail and asked me about this. I deciding to just put an answer on here.
I have been formulating paint, coatings, adhesives, linings, etc since the late 1980s. For about 4 years or so I was Senior Chemist for Trimite Powders, a specialist manufacturer of powder coatings. I've formulated just about every chemistry of powder coating on the market as well as developing many unique technologies. I've been out of powdercoatings development for almost 15 years.
First, not all powder coatings are the same. I can see from the posts here that most of the posters are familiar with standard cure corona discharge powder coatings. However, there are other types of curing chemistry as well.
Has anyone or is it possible to powder coat a concrete floor?
I have heard they have the ability to powder coat wood with the aid of liquid to hold it on the product. Could this work for floors as well.
I would imagine the hardest part would be to cure the powder, but I am sure it could be done in sections with a couple of heat lamps.
Sure, it would be possible to some degree. And... yes... you can powdercoat wood with the help of a conductive primer. I've been out of powdercoating for about 15 years now and don't keep up with everything. But, to my knowledge they are still using an alcohol/water based conductive solution. Back in 'the day' I developed a similar solution and process to coat glass which is much less conductive than wood. Curing the powder (and making it look good) would be the most difficult thing. However, if you are going to compare apples to apples then you would also have to consider how MUCH powdercoating you would need to get the film thickness that you would get from a 100% solids liquid applied coating.
They make an epoxy powder coat. Most cure times are around 20 minutes at approx. 400 deg f.
Prep work looks like it would be the same as the standard epoxy paint work.
If this could work it seems that it may be a better choice than using the current epoxy paints. It would cure faster, stronger, penitrate (spelling) better due to the heat used to cure it, less toxic vapors, and possibly cost less.
Of course, not all epoxies are the same. There are MANY types of epoxies as well as solid epoxy resins and liquid epoxy resins. Most epoxy powder coating cure times are 10 minutes AT METAL TEMPERATURE at 400f. In other words, if you have thick parts it could take 30-40 minutes to get the part temperature up to 400f... so... the cure time would be the 30-40 minutes PLUS the 10 minutes of curing. So, why is it important to say that? Well, because it would be pretty hard to heat even 4" concrete up to temperature and then hold it there. The earth below will be sucking the heat out faster than you can put energy in to it.
The prep would need to be significantly better than that of a liquid. The reason is that the flow would NOT be as good as the liquid since powdercoatings would have a higher surface tension (in general) depending on the temperature.
I can't speak for every manufacturer, but if I were to compare the cutting edge powder coatings formulations to a typical liquid applied type chemistry that would be sold for a garage floor... Powder coatings:
Would NOT penetrate more
Would NOT be stronger
Would NOT be less toxic
In addition, I can't imagine a PC formulation where you could get the same end result at a lower price. Please keep in mind that powder coatings are EXTREMELY brittle when they are undercured.
It cures somewhere south of 400F... good luck getting concrete that hot....
Right... so... how COULD it be done? As I mentioned there are other types of PC chemistry and types. There are plenty of Low Temperature cure resins that could lower the temperature to about 300f. The basic types of curing are convection, UV, and infrared.
What I will say categorically is that I can't see a way for convection curing to work.
I was looking at garage cabinets awhile back. I had found this company and talked to their salesman. He repeatedly used the words "powder coated" doors although they werent metal.
Obviously there are two problems with this with conventional corona discharge powder coatings... the powder sticking to the wood and then the heat associated with curing.
The powder can stick to the wood with a simple liquid solution. The curing on these is most likely an infrared or a IR with UV cure. There are many UV cured PCs now but the powder itself must be melted first. IR is the best way to heat the PC without heating the substrate.
So, yeah, theoretically if you could apply the powder evenly it will probably work. Getting a coating thickness that rivals the dry film of liquid epoxy would require some pretty fancy powder application. Then there is the issue of not disturbing the coating until it's cured.
Good Points... Part of the challenge would be solved in the formulation and manufacture of the powder coating. It would most likely need to be tribo applied... I think... I'll have to think more about that. However, the biggest problem is that when you corona charge a PC and then attempt to apply it thick... once the PC has covered the substrate the the charge on the PC particles can actually start repelling itself. * Imagine that you throw a bunch of magnets on a piece of metal, once the metal if coated then the opposite pole on the magnet would repel any new magnets from sticking to the original coating of magnets...
NOW... any of you who know me at all know that I never say never... I do believe that a powder coating could be formulated that would work on concrete. HOWEVER, there is not way it would compete in price to liquid applied coatings. The biggest problem would be the expense to cure it. It would need to be melted by IR and then UV Cured.
I've got to end this abruptly... I've got to run.... sorry...
