Adhesion of thermosetting powder coatings to sheet aluminum.

Decora粉末涂料有限公司（DPCL）是一家位于安大略省圣凯瑟琳的小型加拿大公司，生产用于建筑，汽车，住宅和美学应用的定制涂料产品。与其他加拿大公司一样，它面临着激烈的全球竞争，迫使其以低成本生产具有更高质量（例如附着力、化学和机械性能）的涂料产品。这显然要求开发优化的生长和加工条件，以生产100%成品率的下一代涂料产品，如果可能的话。目前，它粉末涂层黑色和有色金属的各种形式，从预焊管框架，汽车零部件，建筑面板。与液体喷涂工艺不同，粉末涂料具有许多优点，包括环境和工人安全，因为不需要溶剂。该公司指出，其最大的问题是涂层在包括铝在内的建筑基材上的附着力。附着力差导致产品质量差，影响产量、竞争力，最终影响公司增长。该项目的目标是全面了解涂层制造和加工参数对制造涂层的附着力、机械和微观结构的影响，以满足ISO 9000工业应用的要求。成功涂布率的提高将使该业务从目前的单班制扩展到两班制，这将为圣凯瑟琳的工人提供至少20个高质量的工业工作岗位。

Decora Powder Coatings Ltd (DPCL) - a small Canadian company located in St. Catharines, Ontario, manufactures customized coating products for construction, automotive, residential, and aesthetic applications. Like other Canadian firms, it faces an intense global competition imposing to manufacture coating products with enhanced quality (e.g., adhesion, chemical, and mechanical properties) at low cost. This obviously calls for the development of optimized growth and processing conditions to manufacture next generation coating products with 100% yield, if possible. Currently, it powder coats ferrous and non-ferrous metals in variety of forms ranging from pre-welded tubular frames, automotive parts, to architectural panels. Unlike the liquid painting process, powder coating offers many benefits including environmental and worker safety because no solvents are needed. The company specifies that its biggest problem is adhesion of coating on architectural substrates including aluminum. Poor adhesion leads to poor product quality impacting production yield, competiveness, and ultimately company growth. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of coating fabrication and processing parameters on adhesion, mechanical, and microstructure of as-fabricated coatings which will meet the requirements of ISO 9000 industrial applications. Increased successful coating rates will allow the the business to expand to two shifts over the present single shift operation which will provide at least 20 more high quality industrial jobs for workers in St. Catharines.