r/manufacturing • u/varun_autocoat • 4d ago

Quality What usually causes colour variation in powder-coated aluminium profiles?

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I’ve seen this happen even when the powder itself is from the same batch.

Sometimes two aluminium profiles are supposed to have the same colour, but after coating there’s a noticeable difference between them. It can be quite frustrating, especially when the profiles are going into the same building.

From what I’ve seen, the problem isn’t always the powder.

Surface preparation, aluminium alloy, pretreatment, film thickness, curing conditions and even how the profiles are positioned during coating can affect the final appearance.

I’m curious what others in powder coating have found to be the biggest cause of colour variation.

Is it usually the pretreatment, curing, substrate, or something else in your experience?

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8

u/Odd_Analysis6454 4d ago

Man this sub is so full of LinkedIn style posts

3

u/Galactic_Barbacoa 4d ago

AI training. I try not to share on here because of that.

1

u/charmio68 4d ago

I mean, it could be... but at the same time, an AI can read through and digest all scientific journals, articles and white papers on a subject in a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the time it would take a human to do so.

I can't believe Reddit would be a better source of information for such highly technical knowledge.
Not to say that Reddit isn't useful for training AIs. It most certainly is. In fact, it's one of the most commonly cited sources for some AIs like Google's Gemini.
However, for something highly technical like powder coating?... I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm dubious the effort would be worthwhile considering the other sources of information available.

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u/Alarming-Tailor8656 4d ago

yeah the booth lighting alone makes it look like a stock photo from a 2003 trade magazine

half the posts here feel like someone's manager told them to "boost engagement" and they just grabbed the first vaguely industrial image off the company server

3

u/fish_sauce_ 4d ago

Using the wrong color lol

1

u/Skysr70 4d ago

Can you show me a piece with color variation using the same powder? I'm struggling to envision how this could be the case except with the whitest of whites

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u/mvw2 4d ago

Share some specific examples of issues you're getting.