#sspc inspector

Surface treatment is the process of treating the surface of a substance in order to increase its adhesion to coatings The most important factor that influences the coating performance is the quality of surface preparation. This can be done mechanically or chemically

The process of Surface Treatment or Surface preparation is to remove existing rust, mill scale, old coatings, and other known and unknown contaminations (excluding salt, oil, grease, etc., that requires another pre-treatment). The primary reason for surface treatment increases adhesion from substrate to primer. Always the performance and an appropriate lifetime of coating is decided by the types of surface preparation

In the coating process, surface treatment could be a pre-coating or a post-coating step.

Pre-coating surface treatment is done to make the surface to be coated conducive to the desired coating, by:

Making the surface uniformly smooth for uniform coating thickness and gloss subsequently. This is done by grinding or using emery or sand paper.

Making the surface uniformly rough, in case of highly polished surfaces. This is done by sand blasting or using emery or sand paper. The purpose is to facilitate adhesion of subsequent coating material to it.

Increasing chemical affinity of coating material to the surface to be coated. This is done by either -

Washing with a solvent to degrease the surface to be coated, or

Applying a chemical coating or primer.

In both the cases adhesion of the functional coating on the substrate is much stronger than without the above mentioned pre-treatment.

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