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home Best Technology / Industrial Parts Washer & Cleaning Systems / Phosphate Wash Pre-Treatment Conversion Coating Lines for Powder Coat Prep

Phosphate Wash Pre-Treatment Conversion Coating Lines for Powder Coat Prep

Best Technology offers the latest phosphating equipment lines for metal part or weldments used in various applications, including powder coating phosphate wash pre-treatment.

What is the phosphating process and why phosphate parts?

Phosphating or phosphate conversion coating is a manufacturing process in which an acidic bath solution reacts with the metal part or weldment and combines with or causes a chemical conversion that transforms the surface of the metal part into a protective layer, which is uniform and inert to the environment. Such conversion coating combinations include zinc phosphate, iron phosphate, chromate, or manganese phosphate.

Benefits of the conversion coating process include:

  • surface that is tightly bonded to the base metal
  • increased surface area
  • improved corrosion resistance
  • better adhesion post processes like powder coating paint.

Phosphating can be performed on ferrous (iron, steel based) and non-ferrous surfaces (zinc, chrome, aluminum, and manganese).

The most common use for phosphating is pretreatment of parts before they enter a powder coating system. Powder coat paint is a dry finishing process that uses finely ground particles of color which are electrostatically charged and sprayed onto electrically opposite charged or grounded parts. Naturally opposite charges attract, so the charged powder particles adhere to the part. The parts are typically placed in a curing oven to melt the powder into a uniform color layer.

Wash and Phosphate Lines

The most important stage of powder coating phosphate wash is properly preparing the parts by cleaning residues left from prior processes like welding, grinding, and drawing residues such as machining oils, grease, dust, and rust and then iron phosphate coating. This is commonly achieved in a multistage alkaline cleaning, rinsing, phosphating, and rinsing immersion tanks or spraying system. Iron phosphate can sometimes combine washing/cleaning with phosphating depending on initial part cleanliness.

Front Load Spray Cabinet Parts Washer Open for Iron Phosphate Wash

Multistage Wash, Rinse, Phosphate, Rinse Spray Wash Cabinet Powder Coat Prep System

Powder coat phosphate wash pretreatment normally takes place in a series of spray chambers or multiple spray solutions in one chamber as seen above.  In some iron phosphate coating applications, the clean and coating are combined; otherwise each stage is typically separated by a rinse stage to remove residual chemistry.

Multi-Station Immersion Parts Washer for Phosphate Wash

4 Stage Agitated Immersion System – Wash, Rinse, Phosphate, Rinse

Spray systems enable pretreatment of various part sizes, configurations and weldments; dip tanks may be used instead of spray for some applications.

Best Technology Plating Line Tanks for Iron Phosphate Wash

Larger Scale Phosphate Coating and Plating Line

Phosphate Process Controls

Controlling the phosphating process is essential to achieving consistent coatings which ultimately result in a stable powder coating process. The most important process controls in phosphate conversion coating are:

  • Time – The longer the contact time, the more time to chemically react. The process must be long enough to allow the chemistry to form a uniform coating
  • Temperature – Chemistries typically become more aggressive at elevated temperatures.
  • Concentration and pH – The more acid in concentration accelerates the coating process and can result in a heavier total weight of coating.

Types of Phosphate Lines

Iron phosphate

Iron phosphate pretreatment is the most common pretreatment for powder coating because it can be used with almost any material and has more environmentally friendly by-products or sludge. This process is commonly used on steel materials.

Zinc Phosphate

Zinc phosphate is a non-metallic, crystalline coating that is extremely adherent to materials. It is important to note that the zinc phosphate coating results from the solution itself, not from the part surface like an iron phosphate coating. Zinc phosphate crystals start forming at anodic surfaces on the part surface and stop forming when the part surface area is consumed, ie. they hit another crystal.

Unlike iron phosphate, zinc phosphate cannot clean and coat at the same time: therefore, a four-stage wash, rinse, zinc phosphate, rinse is a common setup.  While zinc phosphating provides improved coating adhesion properties, better coating in tight areas and better corrosion resistance, the process has higher operating costs, uses heavy metals, and can produce considerable sludge, none of which are environmentally friendly for disposal purposes.  Zinc phosphate is typically used on galvanized steel  materials.

Chromium phosphate

Chromium phosphate is most commonly used for aluminum alloy based parts.  While this process is effective, like zinc phosphate, it uses heavy metals which need to be recovered for environmentally friendly disposal.

Best Technology’s phosphating lines provide for excellent pretreatment of parts before post processing like powder coat paint.

Latest News & Products from Best Technology

Semi-Automated Inline Citric Passivation Solution with Data Tracking

For one medical device manufacturer, the design of a citric passivation solution faced two major challenges: The manufacturing process required performing a water-break test after cleaning parts, before proceeding to passivation. This meant that they could not use a fully automated passivation solution. The system had to have data tracking for quality control purposes. Semi-Automated […]

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Best Technology Inc.
14040 23rd Avenue N.  
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612.392.2414   |   763.519.1460  
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  • Request More Information
  • Industrial Parts Washers
    ✛
    • Agitated Immersion Heated Parts Washers
    • Inline Conveyor Wash-Rinse-Dry Parts Washers
    • Immersion Inline Parts Washer
    • Spray Cabinet Parts Washers
      ✛
      • Front Load Spray Cabinet Parts Washer
      • Top Load Spray Cabinet Industrial Parts Washer
    • Vertical Door Pass Through Parts Washer
    • Rotary Drum Parts Washer
    • Powder Coat Prep Equipment
    • Phosphating Lines
    • Pipe Washing Equipment
  • Precision Cleaning Systems
    ✛
    • Applicable Articles
    • How clean is clean?
    • How Do Ultrasonic Cleaners Work?
    • Ultrasonic Benchtop Parts Cleaner
    • Benchtop Ultrasonic Parts Cleaning Multi-Tank Systems
    • Ultrasonic Cleaning Consoles
    • Automated Ultrasonic Parts Cleaning Equipment Wash-Rinse-Dry
    • Large Scale Automated Precision Aqueous Cleaning for Cellular Manufacturing
    • Agitated Immersion Ultrasonic Parts Washer
    • Machine Shop Parts Washer for Swiss and CNC Precision Parts
    • Immersible Ultrasonic Transducers
    • Vapor Degreasers
  • Passivation Equipment
    ✛
    • Applicable Articles
    • What is Passivation? How Does It Work?
    • Nitric vs. Citric Acid Passivation
    • CitriSurf – Citric Acid Passivation
    • Benchtop Ultrasonic Passivation Equipment
    • Ultrasonic Automated Passivation Equipment
    • Automated Ultrasonic Passivation System for Medical Device Parts
    • Passivation Wet Bench for Citric / Nitric Acid
    • Cleanroom Space Saving Automated Passivation System
    • Heated Polypropylene Acid Passivation and Rinse Tanks
    • Agitated Immersion Multi-Tank Passivation Systems
    • Automated Chemical Neutralization Tank / Cart
  • Electropolishing Equipment
    ✛
    • What is electropolishing? How does electropolishing work?
    • Electropolishing Cycle and Current Calculator
    • What is Dry Electropolishing? How does it work?
    • Passivation vs. Electropolishing
    • Table Top Electropolishing Equipment & Electropolishing Machines
    • Electropolishing Wet Benches
    • Large Scale Part Electropolishing Systems
    • Dry Electropolishing Machines
    • EP System – Open Top Wet Bench with Spray Rinse
  • Surface Finishing Systems
    ✛
    • Alodine Lines
      ✛
      • What is Alodine / Chem film / Chromate Conversion Coating?
      • Alodine Chem Film Tank Line
    • Mass Finishing Machines
      ✛
      • Centrifugal Barrel Finishing Machines
      • Spin Dryers / Chip Wringers
      • Vibratory Bowl Polishers
    • Titanium Anodizing Equipment
  • Wet Benches
    ✛
    • Citric / Nitric Passivation Wet Bench for Stainless Steel & Titanium
    • Electropolishing Equipment in a Wet Bench / Fume Hood
    • Fume Hoods
    • Wet Benches for Semiconductor & FM4910 Applications
    • Quick Dump Rinse Tank
  • Specialty & Custom Industrial Process Systems
    ✛
    • Automated Chemical Neutralization Tank / Cart
    • Vapor and Dryfilm PTFE Coating Systems
    • Heated Hot Air Parts Dryer
    • Solvent Recovery Equipment
  • Precision Cleaning Chemistries, Solvents & Fluids
    ✛
    • Why Use a Parts Cleaning Solvent?
    • 3M Novec Engineered Fluids, Fluorinert Liquids, Solvents & Chemicals
    • Solvent Cleaning with 3M Novec Engineered Fluids
    • Thermal Management / Heat Transfer with 3M Novec and Fluorinert Fluids
    • 3M Novec 72DA 73DE Solvent Vapor Degreaser For Medical Device Instruments
    • Solvent Phase-outs
      ✛
      • AK225 HCFC-225 Phase Out and Replacement with 3M Novec HFE Engineered Fluids
      • Medical Device AK 225 Replacement with 3M Novec Engineered Fluid Solvent
      • nPB Replacement
    • Aqueous Cleaning Chemistries
  • Case Studies
    ✛
    • Industrial Parts Washer Case Studies
    • Part Cleaning Case Studies
    • Passivation Systems Case Studies
    • Part Finishing Equipment Case Studies
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