Powder Coating: The High Quality Finish Coating

Powder coating is a technique of coating a substrate with a polymer powder using spray equipment. The major difference between powder coating and wet spraying is that the wet spray norms require a carrier or solvent to allow the material to be successfully atomized and transferred from the gun to the substrate. While, in powder coating, the powder is sprayed through the equipment at low pressure and is drawn towards the substrate via an electrostatic charge, which is induced at the exit of the spray equipment.

Powder coating is a part of many industrial and architectural coatings, which prevents the material from various factors, such as corrosion and more. Powder coatings prevent the corrosion of metals/alloys by acting as a barrier between the metals/alloys and the corrosive materials in contact. Powder coatings protect the parent material and restricts direct exposure to the harsh environment that initiates degradation. These chemicals are extensively used across numerous industries such as aerospace, industrial, marine, automotive, heavy-duty equipment, wood, and many others. In recent years, the practice of using powder coatings has been industrialized very fast and the requirements of functional powder coatings are also gradually gaining importance. 

With stringent health, safety, and environmental regulations within the industrial finishing industry, people are becoming more and more eco-friendly in the coating field. This has led to an urgent need to reduce the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The coatings industry is one of the most severely controlled industries in the world, hence, manufacturers have been constantly adopting low-solvent and less VOC emitting technologies since many years, which is anticipated to continue in the future.

Powder coatings have a wide range of end-user applications in general metal, automotive & transportation, architectural, electronics and electrical appliances, furniture, and various other sectors. Amongst all the applications, general metal holds a major share of 29%. Household appliances are a major driving factor for general metal powder coatings market.  

 

Asia-Pacific (APAC) with increased concentration of industrial clusters accounted for 58.90% of the global market and is forecast to maintain its dominance over the coming five years. Strengthening transformation from mechanical equipment to electrical devices like motors and transformers in factories to increase productivity fuels the usage of powder coating resins. According to the International Monetary Fund, the economic growth in the APAC region is estimated to be around 5.5%–6% during the forecast period 2017–2023. The maximum share in the APAC region for the powder coatings market is held by China, Japan, and India. The factor that led to this growth is the rapid industrialization and humungous amount of construction in this region. 

The economic outlook for APAC is favorable owing to the large economic developments in China and other developing countries. Japan is amongst the world’s largest technologically advanced manufacturers of automobiles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel, and so on. Moreover, the country has been the manufacturing hub in the global market along with the U.S. Japan is one of the major exporters of automobiles, consumer electronics, semiconductors, and processed foods.

The ever-evolving needs of the manufacturing companies will provide scope for powder coatings market players to expand their penetration in Japan. Automotive and machinery industries employ a wide range of powder coatings to veil the parts from the corrosive working environments. Some of the major companies include Mitsubishi Corp., Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Hitachi. These sectors are set to claim the prominent growth in the upcoming future, thereby driving the powder coatings market significantly.

In the past years, there have been many noteworthy and momentous changes in the coatings industry. There is a great demand of research work in this field, due to the commercial success and growing popularity of powder coatings.