Metallic powder coatings: Advancements in chrome effects
Powder coating systems offer several advantages when compared with traditional liquid paint systems. Besides their obvious environmental advantage, powder coatings offer economic and quality advantages over their liquid counterparts. The range of effects allowed by powder coatings includes metallics, such as the metallic effects created by use of aluminum pigments. However, to date the industry hasn’t created a metallic effect in a powder coating system that truly replicates the visual appearance of traditional chrome plating. This article outlines the methods used to create metallic effects, emphasizing chrome, and introduces a new chrome effect powder coating system. The article also provides relevant background on this sector of the powder coating market.
The coating industry has developed different methods for creating a chrome-plating, or a chrome-like, look on parts, especially for parts in the automotive industry. In competition to a chrome effect in a powder coating system there are three main coating methods:
- Traditional chrome plating
- Vacuum metallization
- Liquid paint systems