INNOVATIONS: PRESENT&FUTURE
Pulvercoat®: The Key to Switching from Liquid to Powder Coatings for Finishing Pre-Assembled, Heat-Sensitive Workpieces Francesco Bellucco Pulverit Spa, Italy
I
f.bellucco@pulverit.it
n the 2000s, the coating sector has made one of the most
very fast, low-temperature curing (3 minutes at 120 °C for embossed
important and “longest” technological leaps in its history: the
finishes) with excellent chemical resistance, UV resistance, surface
gradual abandonment of solvent-based liquid paints in favour of
hardness, and scratch resistance performance.
water-based products in many strategic industrial sectors, including furniture, components for agricultural and construction machinery
Technological preconditions
and heavy vehicles, metalwork, and electric engines. Now, those same
Pulverit started developing this product based on a will to overcome
sectors are offered the opportunity to make a further technological
the limits of powder coatings, including high curing temperature
leap: the adoption of powder coatings to replace liquid ones thanks
(typically 150 to 180 °C) and long curing times (15 to 20 minutes).
to Pulvercoat , recently developed in the Pulverit laboratories and
The idea was to attack the market shares of liquid paints, or, in other
patented at the European level. This newly developed powder is a
words, of all applications for which a cross-linking temperature of
kind of product not yet existing on the market to date. It combines
180 °C is an issue. These include pre-assembled products with
®
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N. 66 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 - international PAINT&COATING magazine