Good Morning everyone In people's opinions, would a powder coated hood withstand the heat a Tilley lamp produces? Thanks Tom
Maybe if you do cerakote. You can do exhaust manifolds with that. I don't know they have glossy heat resistant finishes though.
Using conventional powder coating materials and processes, I would say the outcome would still be quite unlikely to last long on any lantern hoods. That's mainly due to the base binders being largely thermoplastic and thermosetting resins...polyesters, epoxies, phenolic/novolacs, polyurethanes, polyxyloxanes, acrylics, etc. The highest rated ones might last a slight bit longer but nothing in comparison to what the vitreous enamels are capable of.
Any plastics formulation that uses long chain molecules, beit thermoplastics or thermosetting will degrade under the extreme temperatures that hoods are subjected to. In my opinion, only vitreous enamel on metal or plain metal finishes (stainless, chromed, speculum plated or perhaps nickel plating) will survive long term. Even certain coloured vitreous enamels will degrade due to the heat/cool cycle. Tilley brown hoods are particularly prone whilst the black versions usually last longer. It also depends on the underlying metal. Bialaddin hoods suffer flaking on the weld spots after a while. You see so many of them with a ring of rust spots because of this. One of the metalagists will probably know why but the steel must undergo a change in composition after being welded.
Thanks, I was not 100% convinced. Google states Powdercoated metals start to degrade at 343 Celsius. I'm not sure what the standard 300CP of a X246 is equivalent to in Celsius. I've purchased a sandblaster and a Kiln,
Do you know if a primer is used before you apply the glue and vitreous enamel powder or is it just straight on to the metal surface?
Analogously to what the functions of primer coats are for paint coats, what they used for vitreous enamels are called groundcoats. -Usually the vitreous enamel coating would comprise of a groundcoat plus a cover/topcoat. Vitreous enamels are either applied(by dipping or spraying) as a slip made of finely ground enamel frits and water plus a tiny amount of gum so that the material on the unfinished 'greenware' could adhere better on the ware's surface or electrostatically applied similarly to the powder coating process. Once dried, the parts will be fired in a kiln at around 700-850°C depending on the specific material used. That's to fuse the glassy frit coating onto the metal's surface. The process is too elaborate to describe in detail within a post here. Vitreous enamels are completely different from any paints or conventional powder coatings. They are completely inorganic. They are basically glassy, amorphous, and mostly metal-silicate compounds.
As I recall, (if anyone has accurate numbers please feel free to chime in), an incandescing mantle reaches temperatures in excess of 1000°C although that reduces with distance obviously. Car engines get hot for sure, but not that hot, which is why engine paints won't last all that long in practice.
