Hilustre Powder Coating Spray Painting and Glass Coating

Powder Coating Division

2004 - Operation Territory – High corrosion protection for hinges on the Ford Territory.

Your mission if you choose to accept it is to produce a gloss black automotive powder coat finish that provides 400 hours salt spray protection on the Zinc die-cast hinge system on the rear window of the Ford Territory.

The Ford Territory is a ground breaking vehicle and required a ground breaking process to achieve the quality of finish and high corrosion performance specified by Ford.

Zinc is a metal substrate that readily corrodes, because of this it very difficult to achieve a high corrosion performance without the use of extremely effective pre-treatment.

Hilustre Coatings began testing sample hinges on its Zinc Phosphate pre-treatment line in early 2003. We worked with our pre-treatment chemical supplier Chemetall (Australasia) Pty Ltd in perfecting the Zinc Phosphate process to exceed the Ford specification.

“The technical expertise and commitment of the staff at Hilustre was vital in driving the optimisation of the Zinc Phosphate Pre-treatment process”. Mr Graham Freeman National Sales Manager Chemetall (Australasia).

A series of samples where phosphated over a period of weeks and sent for Electron microscope analysis to assess the Zinc Phosphate crystal formation (see below). By comparing the results with data recorded on varying chemical levels in the pre-treatment system we perfected the process until we exceeded the Ford specification.

The photographs below illustrates the even and dense distribution of Zinc Phosphate crystals achieved over the surface and a powder coated hinge after passing corrosion testing.

This state of the art pre-treatment system is coupled with a gloss black warranty grade polyester powder to achieve a premium automotive coating system for a premium vehicle.

Operation Territory | Operation Kit and Caboodle

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