I NEED HELP - Removing powdercoat

[freiwaa]

My company manufactures marine oil coolers and heat exchangers. They are made of copper and have brass and in some cases bronze fittings. Some of our units are powdercoated by our customers. If a repair needs to be done, we need to remove the coating. One of our customers recommends bead blasting with melomine. I need information on how best to remove the powder coating and where I can go for quotes. Thank you.

[DALE]

For removing powder there are 3 methods.
Chemical -- (strippers, solvents, etc..)
Mechanical -- (media blasting, sanding,etc...)
Burn off---(Raise the temperature of the part high enough for the coating
to fail)
Because it most likely contains solder joints I would shy away from burn of unless it's a high temp solder or braze.

Mechanical will probably destroy or miss areas in the cooling fins so I would skip that too.

Chemical should do the trick nicely and it works on its own so you save labor but chemicals have a draw back. They are very caustic and usually very flammable so handling and disposal are an issue.

Depending on volume I would suggest chemical for a few if you have a large number of these to strip, then locate a company in your area that does stripping there are many in the US, this puts the hazardous liability on them.

You may e-mail me directly for further assistance.

[Blademan]

Damn..ya hit on the head of the nail again Dale...

[DALE]

Thanks Wayne.

[FMXhellraiser]

Can you do that chemical way yourself or do/should you bring it to a place that does it all the time? I don't know of any places around here that does that... I don't think anyone does that here actaully.

[clab]

Try acetone. It took some right off for me, using a paper towel, but you have to work fast before it evaporates.

[DALE]

Yes you can remove it at home. Soaking in MEK will usually lift the powder after a while.Varnish and stain remover will remove powder. There are also chemicals that are designed just for removing powder.

[warchild]

What is the best and fastest way to remove the powder? I been using DeKote. it's good but sometimes i need something to take it off in just min's.

[jtagger19]

AIRPLANE paint remover it lifts it up like normal paint
and then blast it with glass bead
has been the best and fastest way for me

[upncoming]

yes i agree AIRPLANE paint remover work good for me also.