GOING GREEN WITH POWDER COATINGS

techleahin — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 06:15:22 +0000

Powder coatings are eco-friendly and sustainable products, and have features related to circularity, mainly in terms of their durability, recycling and re-use benefits, and reduced energy consumption. Have a look at the following paragraphs extracted from an article by Edward M. Petrie entitled Road to Circularity: How Sustainable Carbonaceous Material Can Advance Eco-Friendly Powder Coatings.

ARTICLE BY Edward M. Petrie – May 31, 2022

Powder Coatings: An Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Product

Powder coatings are eco-friendly because they contain no solvents and release little or no amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) into the atmosphere. Powder coatings are also considered to be sustainable because of their cost savings, finish quality, and productivity improvements. Powder coatings are now also becoming recognized for their circular traits because they limit or eliminate over-spray waste, they reduce CO2 emission due to energy saved during processing, and they provide greater durability (life-time extension) in comparison to liquid coatings. The table describes the advantages of powder coatings as characterized by their environmental benefits.

Benefit	Eco-Friendly Characteristics
Low VOCs	There are no solvents and therefore no or extremely low VOCs in powder coatings. There is no solvent waste.
Low CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions	In a life cycle analysis3, powder coatings have 25-60% lower carbon dioxide emissions than conventional solvent borne coatings. This is primarily due to more solvent borne paint being required to produce equivalent coverage, and more energy usage for solvent evaporation and air heating.
No hazardous waste	There is no toxic waste generated during the powder application process. There is no need to remove hazardous solvents, and there is no sludge or waste to remove. Powder coatings have no effluent disposal problems as do waterborne coatings which sometimes are put directly into a drain or allowed to settle out in sludge tanks.
No hazardous surface treatment	Powder coatings do not require chrome-based primers or surface treatment to ensure adequate adhesion or durability. In fact, no primer is needed at all over properly pretreated aluminum.

Benefit	Sustainable Characteristics
EPA approval	The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends powder coatings as a sustainable coating option.
Low cure temperature and energy costs	Powder coatings often cure at lower temperatures than liquid architectural coatings, which means reduced energy costs. There is also less heating of air, and the air turnover rate is significantly reduced as there is no buildup of potentially explosive solvent. Lower cure temperatures enable coating of heat sensitive parts.
Less processing time	Powder processing times are generally shorter than those used for liquid paints. There is no solvent so no flash off period is required. Instead, the powder coated articles can pass directly into the oven. This gives substantial saving in space and time. Total processing time can be reduced from hours to minutes.
Low-cost facility	A powder application plant, either manual or automatic, is extremely simple to operate and less costly than a multicoat liquid system.

Benefit	Circularity Characteristics
Single coat for most applications	Powder coatings achieve the same or better levels of chemical, mechanical and weathering performance than liquid coatings, but in a single coat. This means savings on product, time, and energy.
Greater film thickness	Powder coatings can achieve a controlled more uniform and, if necessary, a higher film thickness in one application with powder than with conventional liquid paint system.
Recycling and reuse	Any powder over spray can be reclaimed and recycled. No powder can escape into the atmosphere. Recovered powder can be blended with virgin powder to provide up to 95% utilization
LEED points	Using powder coatings helps gain LEED points. When compared to liquid coatings, powder coatings can maintain or increase durability and performance. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement and leadership.
Reclaiming damaged parts	Damaged or poorly coated areas can be easily rectified before baking by simply blowing off the powder and recoating.
Durability	Powder coating provides greater resistance to weather, corrosion, impact, abrasion, and moisture than equivalent liquid coatings.

Environmental Benefits of Powder Coatings as Characterized by their Eco-Friendliness, Sustainability, and Circularity

Powder coatings are considered sustainable since they reduce harm to the environment throughout the product’s entire lifecycle without sacrificing cost or performance. This includes the use of eco-friendly raw materials and processes. However, the concept of sustainability has expanded well beyond just reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other harmful components. The definition of sustainability now also encompasses downstream aspects of the product (e.g., formulation, processing, application). Sustainability efforts often make good business sense, promising to deliver revenue gains, cost savings, and other benefits that lift enterprise value.

Powder coatings also have several features related to circularity. These primarily consist of their long service life (corrosion resistance), minimal waste (recycling of powder over spray), and reduced energy costs (lower cure temperatures and shorter cure time).

End of extract (used with permission from author)

AT LEA HIN SINGAPORE

Lea Hin Singapore has been in the powder coating industry for 40 years. We put a lot of effort into R&D so that our products can progress further along the road to circularity. The following is a summary of the green aspects of our products.

1. Long service life (durability)
For architectural powder coatings, we have products that can meet the AAMA 2603,AAMA 2604 and AAMA 2605 international architectural specifications for coatings on aluminium.

For steel substrates, we can provide coating systems suitable for different environments, up to the harshest C5 environment (ISO 12944).

Hydrophilic self-cleaning architectural powder coatings featuring anti-dirt pick-up, whereby rain can naturally wash away the dirt on the coating surfaces.

High hardness and anti-scratch coatings.

Anti-graffiti powder coatings.

2. Minimal waste
Our R/EP metallic product series gives higher first transfer efficiency, reduce the overspray and waste.

3. Lower energy consumption
Low-bake products reduce energy consumption during baking process and improve the production efficiency.

4.LEEDS or Green Label points
Through the use of cool pigments, infra-red reflective coatings reduce the temperature of exterior coating surfaces, thus decreasing the heat transferred to the building interior, consequently reducing the energy required for air-conditioning the interior. The same applies to high-refectance white coatings in our product range.

Our antimicrobial coatings used for the inner surfaces of air-condition ducting system help improve indoor air quality.

5.Non-use of hazardous, restricted or banned materials
Products formulated and manufactured to comply with important regulatory requirements such as RoHS, REACH etc. as well as TGIC-free powder coatings.

For more details, please contact us.

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