Š Chemetall
Opening Picture: Visual defects or bad paint adhesion are often related to problems with the conversion coating. However, in the process, many defects can be traced back to the prior cleaning and rinsing stages.
ANALYSIS
Cleaning - An Essential Step in the Pretreatment Process Dr. Stefan Birkenheuer Chemetall GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
stefan.birkenheuer@chemetall.com
T
he quality of the cleaning process has a direct effect on the quality of the final product and the service life of the plant (Ref. Opening picture). Nevertheless, the cleaning process is often taken into account only insufficiently, which can lead to costly errors and quality problems. The global surface treatment specialist Chemetall, which is part of BASF’s Coatings division, supports its customers to balance cleaning efforts and quality requirement to achieve an optimized pretreatment process.
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N. 44 - MARCH/APRIL 2017 - international PAINT&COATING magazine
Bad paint adhesion, corrosion protection or visual defects are often related to problems with the conversion coating. However, many quality problems are caused during the cleaning and etching processes, and in the following rinse zone. Those stages are often not looked at, and as a result not taken into account sufficiently in optimizing the overall pretreatment process. As a leading global supplier of surface treatment technologies Chemetall is well aware of the