Gloss & Appearance

Orange Peel

A description of the smoothness of the coating.  Where coatings are not totally level they develop a waviness in the coating, not dissimilar to an orange peel.

Orange Peel

Short or long waviness of powder coating, noticeable only after curing.

  • Potential Cause

    The film thickness may be too thick or thin

  • Solution

    Increase or decrease the film’s thickness to achieve the recommended DFT from the Technical Data Sheet,

  • Potential Cause

    Heat up cycle of parts too slow, causing the melt viscosity of the coating to be high and restricting the flow out of the coating before it gels.

  • Solution

    Determine heat up curve and increase if necessary

  • Potential Cause

    Heat up cycle too fast, causing the coating to react and gel too quickly and not allowing sufficient time for the coating to melt and flow out.  Particuarly noticeable in highly reactive systems such as low bake or fast-cure coatings.

  • Solution

    Reduce the heat build up on the parts.

  • Potential Cause

    Some coatings, most notably coatings designed to improve corner covering or edge protection will have their melt viscosity increased.  This has the side-effect of increasing the waviness of the coating.

  • Solution

    Where edge coverage is important, a decision must be made on how much of the coating's smoothness can be sacrificed.  Where a highly smooth finish is required, but edge coverage important, a solution is to switch to a dual coat system, with a powder primer to provide the edge coverage.

  • Potential Cause

    Textured substrate surface, perhaps blasted steel.

  • Solution

    Reduce the blast profile or increase the powder DFT.

  • Potential Cause

    Different coatings vary in amount of orange peel properties

  • Solution

    Contact us for information and recommendations.

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