Thermal Spraying Plastics

[PPSABoyce]

Whave a product line which consists of moulded MDF profiles with a polypropylene co-extrusion used to build shutters and during one of the panel fabrication / assembly steps the top and bottom rail of the shutter is cut to size which exposes the MDF. Currently we use a thermal foil to re-seal that edge however it has some disadvantages which is why I'm interested in flame / thermal spraying the exposed area with polypropylene (ideally) or some other thermoplastic to get a better seal. If a solution is found I would implement it in several fabrication plants around the country.

Does anyone have any suggestions on application for this?

[Gordon]

Hi Aaron

I think certainly worth exploring and getting some coatings tested.

This thread may be worth a view

Thermal-Spraying-of-PP-and-PE

Last time I thermally sprayed plastic coatings like this must be 25-30 years ago. I set-up a Metco 5P or may be 6P gun using propane and air instead of oxygen. Can't remember if I was using special or standard hardware though. Tried nylon 11 and some others (unknown, proprietary powders) in various colours. I was pleased with my efforts, appeared to be very good coatings. A little skill was involved though as the coatings needed to be "flame brushed" just after depositing the coating to fully fuse and produce a shiny surface. I also remember water quenching improved the gloss appearance over just a natural cool.

I have seen some dedicated plastic thermal spray kits demonstrated. Very basic large powder tin converted into fluid bed powder feeder feeding a basic propane torch. Cheap and simple but seemed to work well. Not sure who was making them as it was a while ago. The links in the thread above should give you some ideas or maybe just experiment with a powder flame spray gun if you have one.

[MichiganMan]

If you are looking for a system built specifically to spray plastics, rather than trying to build one up yourself, then these guys might be worth a look.
(link dead)

I have no direct experience working with them or the equipment, but it seems to fit.