Jake-Designer
Mechanical
Greetings,
I am working on a design where I plan to paint machined plastic pieces. The paint will be several different colors as I plan to paint the entire assembly and paint various decals and reference designators. I am working on material selection now and am having a tough time finding resources regarding surface preparation and types of paint that are recommended. I have found recommended methods from individuals, but would like to relate that back to a specification if possible. I am more familiar with metals and am familiar with specifications such as MIL-DTL-14072F that give recommended surface treatment and paints for various metals. I am hoping there is something like this for plastics that is versatile and I can use later on when selecting materials.
More specific to what I am actually working on. My first material choice was Acetal due to my machine shop recommending it for ease of machining. But, upon further research, read that it is very difficult to paint. To prepare the surface for paint to adhere you have to use some pretty nasty stuff (chromic acid if I recall correctly). So was leaning more towards something like ABS out of ASTM D4673, as it is cited to be easy to machine, easy to paint and it's mechanical properties are in line with my requirements.
I am working on a design where I plan to paint machined plastic pieces. The paint will be several different colors as I plan to paint the entire assembly and paint various decals and reference designators. I am working on material selection now and am having a tough time finding resources regarding surface preparation and types of paint that are recommended. I have found recommended methods from individuals, but would like to relate that back to a specification if possible. I am more familiar with metals and am familiar with specifications such as MIL-DTL-14072F that give recommended surface treatment and paints for various metals. I am hoping there is something like this for plastics that is versatile and I can use later on when selecting materials.
More specific to what I am actually working on. My first material choice was Acetal due to my machine shop recommending it for ease of machining. But, upon further research, read that it is very difficult to paint. To prepare the surface for paint to adhere you have to use some pretty nasty stuff (chromic acid if I recall correctly). So was leaning more towards something like ABS out of ASTM D4673, as it is cited to be easy to machine, easy to paint and it's mechanical properties are in line with my requirements.
