Proto Tech Tip: Polyester & Epoxy Powdercoats

Every week, Team Protocase is bringing you a Proto Tech Tip video, where we’ll give an informative look at a particular aspect of sheet metal fabrication and CNC Machining.

This week, Cody, a lead on our Engineering & Design Services team discusses powdercoating. Specifically, Cody compares polyester and epoxy powdercoats.

Watch the full video below – or, if you’d prefer to read his Proto Tech Tip, we’ve got the full transcription below the video.

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Hey everyone, Cody here from Protocase with another Tech Tip. Today we’re going to talk about some different types of powdercoats that Protocase offers.

Powdercoating is a process we offer here at Protocase to give your parts or enclosures a durable and colored finish. It is used as a free-flowing dry powder and is applied electrostatically with a handheld gun and then cured under heat. This creates a finish that is typically tougher than a conventional paint.

The two most popular types of powdercoat are polyester and epoxy. Each powdercoat has its own advantages which I’ll go over for you. Polyester powdercoating is the most routinely used form as it provides excellent value.

It has great impact mechanical and chemical resistance, it also has great flexibility and a low cure temperature, which makes it more suitable for sensitive components. Also due to a low
cure temperature, this means they have great resistance to yellowing when overbaked.

When using polyester powdercoats, you can expect one to three years of solid UV resistance, which is ideal for interior and some exterior applications.

Epoxy powdercoating is considered the best in terms of corrosion and chemical resistance. They offer excellent durability and hardness and are very easy to use. They also adhere to metal very well.

However, one main disadvantage of epoxy powdercoat is that they do not handle exterior conditions very well. They weather very easily and can choke and fade when exposed for extended periods of time. So to compare if you have a part or enclosure that is going to be exposed to indoor and outdoor elements and you need it to be very durable, then we would suggest going with a polyester powdercoat.

However if your part or enclosure is only going to be used indoors and you need to be resistant to corrosion, then we would suggest going with an epoxy powdercoat. We offer lots of different colors of both types of powdercoating here at Protocase.

Be sure to check out our website to view these options before placing your order. We also offer a variety of different textures such as sandtex, matte or gloss. We’ll be doing a video soon to compare the difference between these textures, their durability and which ones are best used for applied graphics.

Be sure to check out the powdercoat section of our website, which gives an overview of all of our finishes, including a list of all of our stocked powdercoat colors. Be sure to also check out our blog, which has articles with useful tips and resources.

Thanks for watching this week’s video and we’ll see you next week for another Proto Tech Tip!