UV-curable powder: The door to opportunity
Actual production experiences are usually the best way to learn about how well a material will work on a part. This article is just that: an actual experience by a powder coater on how suitable an ultraviolet-curable (UV-curable) powder coating was for a specific part made of medium-density fiberboard (MDF). The article describes the part, the coating challenges involved, and the solutions provided by a specific powder coating.
The challenge was to put a superior powder coat finish onto MDF surfaces that were 1/4-inch thick and 1 5/16 inches thick. The heat-sensitive issue loomed large for the traditional MDF thermoset powders. Yes, you could lower the oven temperatures for the 1/4-inch MDF; and yes, you could raise the oven temperatures for the 1 5/16-inch MDF. However, when the various thicknesses were in the same assembly, powder application became a much bigger challenge.