Clear Finish on Brass
What is the best way to coat these brass metal dial faces to get a mirror-like finish?
Share
Q. My company manufactures a line of musical instruments, and I am the engineer in charge of finishing at our plant. One of our new lines of instruments has a polished brass dial face and we want a mirror-like finish on the face. We are trying to use a clear nitrocellulose lacquer to finish these faces. We are applying the lacquer with a manual air spray gun in our water wash spray booth. No matter how carefully we apply it, we have been getting bubbles and surface irregularities in the coating. What is the best way to coat these brass metal dial faces to get a mirror-like finish? M.J.
A. There are many possible causes of bubbles and surface defects in nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, including moisture in the atomizing air, excessive moisture from a water wash spray booth, gel particles in the lacquer, dry spray, and excessive film thickness. Other causes of bubbles are surface contamination due to improper cleaning, and airborne contamination drawn into the spray booth. I suggest you investigate each of these possibilities.
Although air spraying polished brass surfaces such as dial faces using nitrocellulose lacquer is a time-proven method, you may want to consider the use of other clear coatings. These would include materials such as acrylics, acrylic/urethanes epoxies, urethanes, vinyls, etc.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Improving Transfer Efficiencies in Coating Operations
There are many methods for addressing electrostatic grounding in metal painting processes, and Tim Ulshafer from Mueller Electric says the best method for your process is a simple and worthwhile exercise.
-
Pretreatment for Painting
Better adhesion, enhanced corrosion and blister resistance, and reduced coating-part interactions make pretreatment a must.
-
Masking for Surface Finishing
Masking is employed in most any metal finishing operation where only a specifically defined area of the surface of a part must be exposed to a process. Conversely, masking may be employed on a surface where treatment is either not required or must be avoided. This article covers the many aspects of masking for metal finishing, including applications, methods and the various types of masking employed.
