Pretreatment Machines
Pretreatment Machines
United Finishing Systems
Before final coating and finishing, special machinery cleans and pretreats products.
This ensures a clean and adhesive surface before powder, paint, or ecoating is applied
United Finishing offers thorough and reliable pretreatment machines, removing all contaminants and evenly applying a pretreatment coating for long-lasting results.
Pretreatment Applications and Substrates
The most common substrates that need pretreatment are metals, like aluminum and steel. Plastics and glass occasionally require this as well.
In general, pretreatment is necessary if the surface will receive a final coating during the later stages of the finishing process. Each kind of substrate needs a particular type of pre-treatment to ensure maximum adhesion of e-coat, powder and liquid finishes.
Different pretreatment chemistries are used to produce higher quality results. The most common types are iron phosphate, zinc phosphate and zirconium. We offer efficient, customizable, and easily operable pretreatment machines for every finishing application.
Streamline the assembly line with our pretreatment equipment. Our machines offer many advantages that will make them well worth an investment.
Proven Designs for Superior Results: We make use of time-tested designs in our machines. With these high-performance systems, you can expect superior product cleaning, rinsing, and conversion coating.
Exceptional Finish Quality and Corrosion Resistance: The chemistries and ultra-pure water used for cleaning and rinsing can cause corrosion in regular pretreatment machines. But ours have superior grade steel and finish quality that helps parts resist strong chemicals. That way, they’ll last for a long time, even when used for extra heavy-duty work.
Thoroughly Tested and Vetted Before Installation: Every component of our pretreatment systems is designed, developed, and tested in house so you can feel confident that everything will work as it should post-deployment. After your customized solution has been thoroughly tested and evaluated, our expert technicians will install the pretreatment machine and help integrate and configure the solution with the current system to ensure a seamless transition.
Crafted With Stainless Steel Components: Stainless steel is an industry standard because of its corrosion and rust resistance. It is also better at managing temperature changes, easy to sanitize, and sturdy against impacts. All of these properties make it the ideal component for your efficient pretreatment systems.
Custom-Built Based on Operation Requirements and Goals: We understand that no two manufacturers have the same assembly processes. That’s why we’ve made highly customizable pretreatment machines. Whether a simple washer or a complex configuration with belts and specialty chambers is needed, we can design and install it.
A Whole Lot More: Our pretreatment machines are designed to increase production uptime, allowing you to reach quotas or deadlines earlier. They are also energy-efficient, lowering your expenses spent on power and limiting environmental impact. Since our machines efficiently use cleaners and coatings, there is less waste and a lower risk of contamination.
Let us know your assembly line needs and we’ll come up with a system that follows your specifications and exceeds your expectations
Pretreatment Machine Levels
Manufacturers have different needs from their finishing processes. United Finishing offers three different predefined machine levels. These are available to accommodate your needs of product quality levels, ease of maintenance, energy efficiency, water management and machine longevity.
Economy – This machine level offers the lowest cost while still performing the cleaning, rinsing, and conversion coating processes. Maintenance features and control features have been minimized to maximize the return-on-investment.
Energy Plus – Due to the rising cost of energy and concern with the environment, this level can have a significant payback. Special heating systems are used to optimize energy usage, stainless steel tank baffle systems installed on heated stages to conserve heat and unique air seals and demisting equipment are applied on the exhaust systems.
Pre-Treat Pro – This machine level is generally applied to the most demanding production environments. All the Energy Plus features are applied along with special controls for the spray systems, comprehensive but easy to use chemical feed systems and innovative quality tracking system to create a feedback loop for continuous improvement. The highest grades of steel are used for even greater longevity than our Economy version.
Powder Coating Pretreatment Benefits
This type of pretreatment is designed for parts that will use powder containing pigment, leveling agents, and curing chemicals. Typically, these are applied using electrostatic sprays and cured using heat or infra-red light. This results in an even and strong coating that’s highly resistant to fading and corrosion caused by constant motion or exposure to the elements.
Because of the powder’s loose form, pretreatment is necessary to make the coating bind with the substrate more effectively. Most pretreatment coatings use either detergent iron phosphate or crystalline zinc phosphate, which provide cleaning and corrosion resistance. They also increase adhesion for long-lasting coatings. In addition, they can help create an even surface for equal shine and uniform thickness, resulting in a premium appearance.
The most common application for powder coating pretreatments are parts that need high corrosion protection. These include automobile parts and exposed building components.
Liquid Finishing Pretreatment Benefits
Depending on the properties of your components, they may need liquid coatings. A few types of metals, plastics, and other types of substrates are best suited for liquid paint, which can be applied via sprays or rotary bells. Pretreatment is necessary for this type of finishing to maximize adhesion.
Liquid finishing pretreatments offer benefits like increased adherence and enhanced fade resistance. The process also removes all other chemicals, contaminants, and substances that may react with the volatile ingredients used in liquid finishings.
Because of the versatility of liquid coatings, their use is widespread. They can be found in commercial vehicles, aviation and aerospace industries, and health and medical technology. Because of these applications, a good pretreatment coating is necessary to ensure maximum performance and longevity.
E-Coating Pretreatment Benefits
Among the three types of finishing available today, e-coating is most commonly used on products that require a high level of corrosion resistance. It stands for electrophoretic coating painting, and it uses electricity to chemically bind the paint to the surface of a conductive substrate. That’s why this method is mostly limited to metal parts. These are usually immersed in a tank of finishing coating while a current is applied.
Because of this delicate process, e-coating pretreatment is necessary to ensure that nothing goes wrong. The process will clean, rinse and apply a conversion coating to the exposed surface of a component to remove oils and grease that can reduce conductivity. This is done before the e-coating stages ensuring the pretreatment will create a proper surface, resulting in a coating that lasts for an extended amount of time.
Typically, e-coating pretreatment and e-coating are used for components that go in household appliances, metal decking, automotive under-body components and heavy-duty industrial machinery. These need to withstand corrosion and constant motion, which the coating is made to do.
Schedule a Consultation
If you need a high quality, customized pretreatment system for your production floor, United Finishing Systems can design and install it.