Everyone wants to take advantage of the full lifespan of their vehicle.

The best way of achieving this is to ensure all metal components of your car are electrophoretically painted.

Below we will discuss the process of this and the benefits to you.

What is Electrocoating?

Throughout time, industries have found more and more ways to increase the effectiveness of protective coatings. Electrocoating is a method of applying paint to a conductive substrate. It is predominantly used in the automotive industry as a number one choice for motor manufacturers.

It achieves high salt spray resistance. The resultant paint finish offers a high aesthetic appeal with strong durability and excellent resistance to corrosion.

How is car ecoating applied?

Electropaint is applied by completely submerging the component into charged paint.

Paint particles are electrically charged to deposit on a metal surface positively charged when influenced by a direct current. This electropainting process produces a uniform layer thickness between 15 and 30 microns.

The success of ecoat painting is greatly dependent upon the pre-treatment process as well as the painting process itself. Strict adherence to chemical parameters is key to a quality finish.

So what is the electrophoretic or e coating coat process in depth?

Stage 1 – Pretreatment

This is vital to achieving the best results from ecoating. Pre treatment involves the metal being cleaned and phosphate being applied using BASF chemicals.

Stage 2 – Coating Is Applied

The pre treated metal (such as mild steel or other metals) is submerged in the solution of water and Powercron 6200 paint. The solution is made up of 80% – 90% of deionized water and 10% to 20% paint.

Stage 3 – Post-Rinsing

Post rinsing enhances the quality of the paint coating. When it’s finished, paint solids will then cling to the surface. This residue is rinsed off and returned to the tank.

Stage 4 – Baking & Oven Curing

After the coated part exits the post-rinse phase, it’s placed in an oven that curest the paint film. This ensures the coating can perform at its optimal level.

Read more about our ecoating process here.

What are the benefits of car ecoating?

The process is actually used in many different industries, but most predominantly in the automotive sector. Ecoat has high corrosion resistance and is commonly used as a high-performance primer coat prior to powder coating.

The dipping process allows for high-volume finishing of a variety of complex shapes and sizes. This makes it extremely cost-effective and great for long-term uses. Some other benefits include:

• Uniformity of coating thickness across the whole part
• Unaffecting the functionality of threads
• Excellent corrosion protection
• Great edge coverage
• Single coating application which can be easily overcoated in powdercoat
• Process consistency resulting in low reject rates
• Compatible with a great many other coating finishes
• 100% coverage of the component, including hard-to-reach areas