Coil Coating 101

 

Question:

I am a masters-degree student of materials engineering at my university. I was glad to see your site on the Internet. I am studying about continuous color coating of sheet steel and for my project, I need information on experimental data and standards for them. I need your guidance on how I can get this information.

I want to know:

1. What is the first treatment on steel sheet to prepare it for color coating?
2. What are the uses of color coated steel sheet?
3. What are the performance characteristics of color coated steel sheet? Thanks for your help! B. M.

Answer:

What you refer to as continuous color coating, we refer to as coil coating. In this process, coils of sheet steel are fed into a machine that pretreats the top and bottom surfaces, applies paint coatings to the top and bottom, cures the paint and rerolls the sheet steel into coils. To answer your questions: 1) In the pretreatment section, the steel is cleaned and phosphated. In the coating section, the steel is primed, if necessary and then topcoated. Single or multiple coats are applied selectively by roll coating. 2) Precoated (coil coated) steel is used to make building panels, major appliance wrappers, swimming pool parts, small appliance components, computer cabinets, automotive components and a host of other items too numerous to name in this column. 3) The performance characteristics of precoated steel is similar to steel coated by other methods using the same pretreatments and coatings.

For more detailed information, contact:
National Coil Coating Association
1300 Sumner Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115-2851
www.coilcoating.org