The e-coating process, also known as electrocoating, is a highly reliable method for protecting metal parts against corrosion, UV exposure and wear. By understanding how e-coating works and how to optimize it, you can ensure optimal throughput, reduce defects, and achieve high-quality coatings.
When bonding, coating, painting, printing or sealing, most manufacturers eventually experience adhesion failure, corrosion protection issues, or structural weaknesses. In this article, we will explain what surface treatment is and describe its benefits for various applications. We will also guide you in choosing among today’s 10 most common surface treatment methods.
Removing surface contaminants is an essential step that directly impacts the performance and durability of materials and components. Understanding surface contamination helps compare standard decontamination methods and how laser technology differentiates from traditional approaches.
Laser surface treatments can be used on almost all types of metals, including carbon steel, cast iron, aluminum, molybdenum, and magnesium. They can remove contaminants and coatings (laser cleaning), modify the surface roughness (laser texturing), harden surfaces (laser hardening), and add materials to surfaces to improve surface properties (laser cladding).
Laser ablation occurs when a laser beam removes material from a localized area. Used in various industrial applications, this process can create permanent marks (laser marking), remove contaminants and coatings from surfaces (laser cleaning), modify a part’s roughness (laser texturing), cut through a surface (laser cutting) and much more.
To apply adhesives, manufacturers use a method called adhesive bonding. Due to its many benefits, it is widely used to replace welds and mechanical fasteners.
There are countless ways to blast a surface due to the variety of abrasive materials. In today’s industrial environments, grit blasting is often chosen because it is low cost and effective when cleaning several types of large surfaces, including metals, plastics, and ceramics.
Bonds are an important part of a wide range of products, from EV batteries to aerospace components. To ensure the products’ safety and long-term quality, these bonds must be reliable and durable. Especially when they are exposed to stresses, loads, and high levels of energy. To achieve this, strong bonds are needed.
Oxide removal is essential to prevent weld contamination, maximize the bond strength of coatings and adhesives, and increase part durability. Laser cleaning, mechanical abrasives, pickling chemicals and other chemicals have all proven effective in cleaning oxidized aluminum.
Fiber laser cleaners are becoming increasingly popular to clean metal surfaces due to their many advantages over traditional cleaning methods like sandblasting and chemical cleaning.
Surface finishing is the process of modifying a surface to improve specific properties, such as corrosion resistance, durability, adhesion, or appearance. The term encompasses a wide variety of processes, including deburring, coating, polishing, and texturing.
While dry ice blasting is praised for its advantages, it also comes with several disadvantages. In this article, we’ll go over the different aspects of dry ice blasting to better understand when it’s worth it, and which alternatives to consider.
