Steel coating refers to the substrate, which is the steel workpiece being coated, rather than the coating material itself. Steel requires a coating because it is not especially corrosion-resistant, which can be damaging to the whole application. If rust or any type of corrosion infects the application it will not perform as it should.
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There are many different ways in which steel can utilize coating services, and the coatings are typically applied either as additional surface protection from corrosion and environmental factors as well as to provide the steel part with additional characteristics derived from the coated material. Since steel is not especially corrosion-resistant (unless it is alloyed with the metallic element chromium in order to form stainless steel) the addition of a protective coating is beneficial in many applications and industries including: industrial manufacturing, for the coating of essential components including machines and smaller parts such as piping and valves; automotive, in order to coat parts such as the external surface of the vehicle, the exhaust system and the undercarriage; marine, for parts of the shipping vessel that are in contact with the salt-filled sea water including boat bottoms; aerospace, in order to coat the small steel components required in aviation equipment; and agriculture, for the coating of large and small farming machinery such as balers and plows.
Steel coating can be accomplished through a variety of coating processes, each of which should be decided based upon the intended application of the steel part to be coated. Two of the main coating services that are utilized in the coating of steel are powder coating and epoxy coating. The powder coating process involves the application of dry, free flowing paint to a steel workpiece. As an alternative to normal painting as well as electroplating, powder coating provides steel parts with a decorative yet tough and highly abrasion-resistant coating that eliminates any need for polishing and/or deburring after the coating process has occurred. The two main types of powder used in steel powder coating services are thermoplastic powders and thermosetting powders. The main difference between these two types is that thermoplastic powders will re-melt upon heating while thermosetting powders will not. Quite a different coating process, epoxy coatings are two-part coatings. Initially developed as heavy-duty coatings for use on metallic substrates, steel in particular, steel epoxy coatings actually use less energy than steel powder coatings. A more specialized type of steel epoxy coating is referred to as fusion bonded epoxy powder coating, or more simply, fusion bonded epoxy coating (FBE).
