Kett's coating measurement equipment ensures quality and consistency in testing

Industrial coatings are applied to various substrates such as metal, plastic, glass, and composite to extend their lifespan and protect them from corrosion and environmental damage. Similarly, commercial coatings are applied to wood, metal, and concrete structures to protect them from mechanical, chemical, and environmental degradation while enhancing aesthetics. To ensure the quality of coatings, manufacturers rely on various testing methods to determine their resistance to friction, wear, peel, and scratches. Without adequate adhesive strength and durability, coatings can fail prematurely, causing costly warranty and safety issues for manufacturers.

One example of such an issue is the paint blistering and bubbling in the popular minivan for several years, resulting in rust spots and an undesirable finish. The manufacturer could have avoided this issue by using proper measurement equipment and conducting more thorough coating testing. To create reliable coatings and products that use them, engineers and quality assurance teams require reliable testing instruments to ensure that industry standards and necessary properties are met.

Traditional coating test equipment offers limited functionality, necessitating multiple instruments, leading to inconsistencies, laboriousness, and time consumption. However, some industry suppliers provide coating measurement equipment that performs multiple functions like a "Swiss army knife," allowing for greater flexibility and productivity. These desktop, online, and inline testing solutions are cost-effective analytical tools that quickly determine critical coating properties.

The quality of industrial coatings applied to products made of metal, plastic, glass, or composite materials is crucial to extend their lifespan and ensuring they are resistant to mechanical, chemical, and environmental damage. To achieve this, manufacturers rely on various testing methods to determine the coating's resistance to friction, peel, wear, and scratches. Traditional testing equipment offers a limited range of functions, making it time-consuming, inconsistent, and laborious. As a solution, some suppliers provide multi-functional testing capabilities in a single machine, allowing greater flexibility and productivity. Kett offers a range of coating measurement equipment, including desktop, online, and inline testing solutions.

Kett's H14FW provides immediate, accurate readings of many types of property measurements.

Kett's all-in-one desktop unit, the H14FW, offers significant flexibility in a single machine, testing and measuring multiple coating properties, including friction, wear, peel, and scratch resistance. The unit is equipped with assorted jig attachments for specific tests, and by changing the jig attachment, the contact mode in friction and wear testing can be modified. Scratch intensity and peeling resistance tests can be performed. The device provides testing under various conditions by presetting the speed of table movement, stroke length, and stroke count. Since the H14FW unit utilizes much less force, it can be used to compare coatings on various substrates or items that are challenging to coat.

For continuous coating testing, Kett's H40 Friction and Wear Tester enables the real-time testing of changes in frictional resistance due to wear. The unit uses a balance arm that crosses the feed table at right angles in forward and backward motions to measure frictional forces accurately. The unit is equipped with a load converter containing a probe integrated into a holder that continuously measures changes in frictional resistance due to wear. Manufacturers can set the stroke length of the reciprocating balance arm from 1 to 100mm and automatically stop it when the desired travel distance is reached. The frictional resistance between the coating and the balance arm can be measured precisely from 0 to 9.8N.

Kett's LZ990 coating thickness gauge is is able to measure ferrous and non-ferrous substrates.

Kett's model LZ990 enables users to measure coating thickness with a simple, non-destructive test to ensure the coating is evenly applied at the appropriate thickness. The device displays thickness in either mils (.001 inch) or microns (.001mm) to the thousandth decimal place. In high-value applications, manufacturers may also want to analyze the composition of specialized coatings. Advanced composition analyzers like Kett's Spectrometer allow the in-line analysis of the composition of liquids, slurries, and powders.

By utilizing Kett's testing instruments for adhesion, peel, and wear measurement, engineers and quality assurance teams can ensure that coatings meet industry standards and verify the necessary properties, particularly for high-value or high-volume applications. With Kett's range of coating measurement equipment, manufacturers can confidently make critical coating decisions, knowing they are making the best choice and proceeding correctly.

For more info, contact Kett: call 800-438-5388, email support@kett.com, or visit www.kett.com.