Shining the Spotlight on Sarah Ross, Glassflake Quality Manager
Sarah Ross, is our Quality Manager, and has been with the company for 12 years. Starting as an administrator in August 2011, Sarah has worked her way to her current role as...
With advanced manufacturing technology for glassflake, the material is now much thinner and more consistent than previously possible. The thinner flakes, especially so around 1 micron of thickness, are ideal for use in powder coatings, given their resistance to attrition of the morphology during the powder manufacturing process. This allows for retention of the high aspect ratio of flakes and associated high surface area—key properties of the flake for providing performance enhancements in the final coating film.
The unique property improvements find applications across a number of powder coated components on the modern car. Starting from the ground up, glassflake powder coatings are used to provide enhanced weather protection to alloy wheels, while on body panels ultra thin glassflake is used as substrate for advanced effect pigments.
In any coating system, glassflake has a natural leafing tendency, to lie parallel to the substrate surface, in powder coatings, this occurs during the baking phase of application. These layers of parallel flake overlap to create an incomplete barrier to permeation of moisture and corrosive ion. This coating type is used in harsh environmental conditions, such as marine splash zones and transport pipes for the oil & gas sector.
Powder coatings containing glassflake are used to protect a range of substrates in the architectural sector. With an increasing demand for metal and glass structures, there is a requirement for protection of metals with an aesthetically satisfying finish. Glassflake powder coatings are used to this effect, offering excellent weather stability, especially so in flouropolymer based systems, often meeting and exceeding requirements for AAMA 2605 specification systems.
