A model of the infrared cure of powder coatings based on surface absorptivities in-situ measurements

The efficiency of radiative powder coatings curing depends both on the coating radiative properties and the spectral emissivities of the infrared emitters. This investigation is structured to develop a mathematical model using the radiative properties of the coating to describe precisely the coating temperature and deduce the degree of polymerization conversion during the cure. The reflectance measurements results obtained with a FTIR equipped with an integrating sphere are analyzed and implemented in a thermal model. These results show that reflectance values vary with the chemical composition, the pigment nature, and are influenced by the powder coatings cure. The thermal model, solved with the finite volume method, permits to compute the varying temperature within the thickness of the powder-coated metal sample and provides a good prediction of the temperature within the “coating + substrate” system. The experimental cure of powder coatings supporting this study was performed in a small test oven equipped with electrical infrared emitters. Presented at 2006 FutureCoat! Conference, sponsored by Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology, November 1–3, 2006, in New Orleans, LA.