Winona Powder Coating has exceeded the standards required to receive the AAMA 2604 Certification from paints and performance coating company AkzoNobel.
The AAMA 2604 Certification is known for its rigorous standards and has been given to very few powder coating businesses in the United States. With this certification, Winona has the capacity to accept new clients, as other powder coating businesses currently lack the space and resources required for new projects.
Winona Powder Coating is a brand new Certified Applicator of AkzoNobel for Architectural Powder Coatings Technologies. AkzoNobel carries out full audits of its Interpon D Approved Applicators on a defined basis and frequently performs random spot checks to assess their continuing ability to comply with the approval criteria. There is also regular improvement and training on all powder coating processes, including for personnel such as operators and supervisors. In addition to an audit of the standards described above, the applicator must also submit finished parts annually for testing by AkzoNobel.
- Testing: Interpon D Approved Applicators' test laboratory must contain specific equipment suitable to carry out required testing. Testing is to be performed at defined intervals and methods to ensure pretreatment consistency, correct curing, and required film performance (i.e., flexibility, color, gloss, adhesion, corrosion resistance, chemical resistance, durability, film thickness, proper curing, and overall appearance) on finished articles.
- Quality: Thorough testing, as well as being an ISO 9001-2015 certified custom coating company, supports Winona Powder Coating's philosophy of "Quality From Start to Finish." Further quality assurance measures at Winona include essential steps starting at pretreatment. Pretreatment allows for the powder paint's proper adhesion to the substrate and ensures the coating's long-term adhesion to provide lasting corrosion resistance. This process requires three steps, which include cleaning, rinsing, and chemical conversion of the specific surface.
The ovens at Winona that cure the parts to which powder paint is applied go through routine preventative maintenance to ensure that each part is fully cured. A thickness test is then executed to ensure that equipment coatings have a certain thickness for maintaining their effectiveness. A general thickness range Winona looks for is 2–3 dry mils (thousandths of an inch). A coating of 2–3 mils usually provides complete coverage of powder paint.
Gloss evaluation, cure confirmation, and adhesion testing are some of the last steps taken in their quality assurance program. Gloss evaluation is a process where every product is inspected before shipment to warrant no gaps in coverage, bubbles, warping, or insufficient coating application. Cure confirmation is performed so that there aren't any overbake areas where the powder has cured in a dry and brittle fashion, or underbake, where the powder has not completely cured. Adhesion testing measures how well the powder paint sticks to the part once it is fully cured. As with the cure test, the adhesion test results can be altered by either over-or underbaking.
All of these steps performed by Winona's employees verify their quality assurance program and meet AkzoNobel's standards. Learn more about Winona Powder Coating Inc. at https://www.winonapowder.com/.
