Paint for Industrial application, standard colors

[cdub772]

Hello,

I've been digging into the multitude of paint options out there for industrial equipment, and am a bit lost. I see a lot of PPG paint numbers spec'd, but I don't quite get their website.

What type of paint is typically used on industrial process equipment(safety blue frames and such)? What type of paint is used on outdoor/possibly mobile equipment?

There are a handful of colors I see all the time. Are these some kind of standard (blue, yellow, red...)

Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CoryPad]

If appearance is the only criterion, then simple water-based acrylic paint should suffice. If you need good adhesion, chemical resistance, etc., then epoxy paint is appropriate. For outdoor applications, epoxy base coat with urethane topcoat is best. The color can be almost anything you want - talk to a vendor and ask for "standard" colors if you want.

Regards,

Cory

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[cdub772]

Cory,
I've been looking at the ppg site:

http://www.ppg.com/car_indcoat/TrueFinish/default.htm

They have a couple different paints listed, one seems to be water based and the other not. The spectracron says its a "solvent" based type w/ a urethane enamel top coat. This seems to require baking at a slightly elevated temperature for some time to complete.

http://corporate.ppg.com/ppg/paf/documents/pittthaneultra.pdf

Also, I found something call Pitthane, which claims to be an acrylic based urethane. It doesn't seem to require baking to complete.

what's the real difference between these two? They both claim to do the same thing, but they are from the same company.

 

[rhodie]

Far and away, there are two primary classes of paint:

Latex (water based acrylic)
Alkyd (oil based, cut in solvent)

Most OEM and industrial companies prefer to use Alkyd based paint for surface adhesion, hardness, and chemical/corrosion/oxidation resistance.

There are varying types of Alkyd based paints, some are "slow drying" with long oils as the base, others are "quick drying" with chain-stopped oils or short oils as the base.

The baked enamels/urethanes you mentioned are common too, as well as epoxies, and even a dying breed called "Water Reducible alkyds".

Depending on your application, any number of these types or just one type of paint might be best. It depends largely on what performance you desire out of your coating.

The pigmenting or tinting of your paint should be no problem, as any color of the spectrum is possible with universal colorants. Standards are nice, but a color sample to match is better.