Coatings World - January 2015

we desire, such as corrosion protection, ;exibility, impact resistance and chemical resistance, but also the application process that our customers use to apply the coatings. In addition, we also provide a variety of powder coating systems such as single layer systems and dual layer systems to help meet our customers’ needs,” Lopez emphasized.

The durability and stability of powder coatings can help to maintain the structural integrity of the underlying metal that they are designed to protect. However, when special effect metallic pigments, such as aluminum, gold, bronze or copper are used in powder coatings, the “visual appeal” is sometimes the customer’s key property. Reddy and her team identi;ed factors that in;uence the optical properties of the metallic pigments in powder coatings.

“Solid color powder coating overspray can often be recovered and returned to the coating system to help allow customers to achieve nearly 100% use of powder coating materials. There is a process called bonding in metallic effect coatings where the pigments are fused to the powder particles to help allow for excellent reclamation,” explained Reddy. “When proper effect pigments are selected, we can have a durable coating ;nish with an appealing anodized metallic visual appearance using only a single layer of powder coating. The layer is formulated to provide good protection and an aesthetic bene;t that helps to reduce material use and coating costs for our customers,” Reddy added.

“Axalta powder coatings are offered to be used in many
industrial applications for aesthetics and protection purposes,
including architectural, pipeline and automotive,” said Dr. Fred
Allen, Axalta’s Global Technology Director of Powder Coatings.
“We are committed to working closely with our customers to
understand their needs and to continue to develop products and
coating processes to help meet those needs, whether a customer
needs a coating with exceptional corrosion or impact resistance,
or a coating with visual pizzazz.”
Additional Axalta powder coating experts were also sched-
uled to present at FABTECH 2014. Presentation titles included:
Building Blocks of a Powder Coating System, presented by Bill
Owens; Troubleshooting Your Powder Coating Operation, pre-
sented by Mike Wittenhagen; Basic Concepts of Powder Coating
(Spanish) and Advanced Concepts of Powder Coating (Spanish),
both presented by Mentor Leal; and Trends in Architectural
Powder Coatings, presented by Michael Withers.

PPG Celebrates 45th Anniversary of
Alabama Aircraft Products Plant

The 45th anniversary of PPG Industries’ Huntsville, AL, facility was celebrated with an open house for employees and their families to tour the operations where aircraft windshields, windows and canopies are made. For nearly half a century, PPG and its employees have maintained leadership in the global aviation industry as well as in the Huntsville community.

It is a much different operation today, with greater ef;ciency and the ability to make larger and more complex parts, according to plant manager Tom Meyer.

“The biggest change since the plant opened is the ongoing transformation to a lean culture, which I would de;ne as the

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