Hi,
Thanks for enquiry.
The coating is normally applied using a tumbler.
The majority use household cement mixer, which has inserted a 60 litre plastic garbage bin.
Coating is diluted with solvent, catalyst added, and to coat, 25-35 mls of the mixture is used to coat about 1000 projectiles. Coating take about 10-15 seconds, and when coating barely covers all, the whole lot is dropped onto drying racks on trays or mesh.
They are allowed to dry without disturbing them. When dry, it is baked at 190C , for about 8-10 minutes in an extremely well air circulated oven.
After baking and cooling, a second coat is applied and same process is repeated.
You can easily coat 100,000 per day if you set it up correctly.
After baking final coat, and allowed to cool, the coated projectiles are sized to required diameter.
Coating not only lubricates sizing process but also deforms to hydraulic shape without coming off alloy.
It would be appreciated, if you can supply some information, why you are asking these questions. Are you a manufacturer or a hobbyist?
It would be appreciated if you can advise your interest.
Below is general guide for coating.
J & M Specialized Products Pty Ltd
A.B.N. 97 078 037 653
Phone 02 65569004 Mobile 0412 140 821
Email: jandm@blue1000.com.au
PRODUCT DATA AND APPLICATION
HI-TEK-LUBE SUPERCOATS
For standard, 1X, 2X and LC Black, GREEN & Metallic types.
HI-TEK-LUBE SUPERCOAT’s are a range of heat cured coatings, specifically suitable as dry film lubricants for metal components. On steel, the coatings offer corrosion protection as well as lubrication in areas where normal lubricants cannot be used.
Typical areas where product can be used, in wet, corrosive, dusty or contaminating environments, at elevated temperatures.
DESCRIPTION.
HI-TEK-LUBE SUPERCOAT’s , are solvent based, self-lubricating, paint type coatings, and require specialized Catalyst and heat to fully cure.
Products may not adhere well to polished Stainless steels or Aluminium.
Hi-Tek-Lube Supercoats do not contain any PTFE, Fluoro polymers or Teflon.
Once heat cured, the product range offers excellent lubricity, Impact resistance, and excellent deformation capability, as well as corrosion protection.
The extreme lubricity and durability of the cured coating, allows excellent metal separation and lubrication.
Heat cured coating has excellent heat tolerance and heat reflectivity.
The coating has in built capability to react to high energy input applications to further harden and keep separated metal surfaces without softening or becoming sticky. Heat will not soften correctly cured coating, and excessive heat will produce an extremely hard coating.
The cured coatings is suitable for use in service temperatures of around 150 Degrees Celsius, with intermittent use up to 250 Degrees Celsius.
TYPICAL APPLICATIONS.
Limitations for use depends on the ability to have the coating being heat cured on to the components at curing temperatures.
Until coatings are heat cured, even when dry, the coatings can be easily washed and recycled back into production, with solvents like Acetone, or Methyl Ethyl Ketone.
This phenomena is used as a quality control aid, for curing indication, during manufacture of coated components.
Properly heat cured coatings, are not removed with MEK or Acetone even if the coating is soaked in these solvents.
COATING SUGGESTIONS
AND CATALYST WELL BEFORE USE.
Measure out coating, initially add same amount of dilution solvent, and add required catalyst to diluted mixture.
For example take 100 mls coating, add 100 mls Acetone and add 20 Mls Catalyst.
Prior to using catalysed and diluted mixture, additional solvent may be added to dilute coating if required, to allow the coating to coat more product with very thin coating.
Use about 20-30 mls of Catalysed coating mixture to tumble coat onto approximately 1000 projectiles.
Tumble only for 10-15 seconds, and just long enough to coat.
Whilst wet, drop coated projectiles onto drying mesh or trays and air dry until touch dry.
Do not disturb whilst drying is taking place.
Do not tumble dry the projectiles as it will produce unsatisfactory results.
After completely dry, shake tray to loosen projectiles, and place totally dry projectiles into oven and cook at 190C for about 8-10 minutes. Do Not overload each tray, to ensure even heating and curing.
When cooked, take out of oven, cool, and then recoat with same mixture. Repeat all as above.
It is better to apply and heat cure, two or three, very thin diluted coatings, dry totally, and then cure with heat after each coating, to obtain acceptable appearance of finished coating.
When properly heat cured, the coating lubricating quality does not appear to suffer, even if coating film appearance is blotchy or uneven.
As a general guide, curing approximately 5-15 minutes between coating at 180-200 degrees Celsius is essential, as uncured coating will be removed by next coating, if previous coating is not properly cured.
Once the desired coating appearance is reached , then final cure should be held at 180-200 degrees for at least 6-8 minutes.
NOTE. Do not use thick coatings, or try to coat with one thick coating, it will simply not work well..
Do not over heat or over cure product for excessive periods, as coating becomes extremely hard and brittle, and colour will also darken.
Thick application of coatings will also “weld” metal object together during heat curing, and thick coatings dry slowly, produce undesirable touch marks and may produce uneven and irregular surface after cure.
Thick coatings, also detracts from flexibility of the coatings, and coatings may chip or crack when sizing or impact testing is carried out.
Best results are produced by application of two or three very thin and diluted coatings. Each coat requires drying, and after thorough drying, coating is to be bake cured after each application.
Individual testing of curing requirements, must be determined by user, for optimising each end use application.
Once you determine best product using your processing methods, you then have to reproduce exactly each step on going, to reproduce same results required.
Diluents suitable for coating is Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Acetone, and blends of MEK/Iso- Propyl Alcohol and or Acetone.
IMPORTANT NOTE.
ONLY THOROUGHLY AIR DRIED COATINGS MUST BE HEAT CURED AS UNDRIED COATING IS EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE AND VAPOURS, MAY CAUSE EXPLOSION IN THE OVEN.
CAUTION
The coatings and solvent diluents are highly flammable and coating are and ovens must be away from coating area with adequate ventilation to eliminate any danger of fire from evaporating solvents.
No sparks or flames or smoking near uncured or wet coatings or near solvents.
Avoid skin contact, eye contact and clothing contact, and have adequate ventilation to remove vapours, and appropriate solvent mask is recommended to avoid solvent vapour inhalation.
Do not Spray or Atomise coatings. Application is best achieved by tumbling process.
CURE TIME (indications only) Approximate
TEMPERATURE CURE TIME
180C 10-15 minutes
190C 8-10 minutes
200C 6-10 minutes
NOTE: Time for curing, should start, when the temperature of the product, reaches the desired cure temperature, and heating rate is controlled by ability to circulate hot air in oven.
If loading an oven, say with 50kgs of metal, the temperature of the metal may take some time to reach the set oven temperature, and is directly related to and limited to heating capacity, and air circulation around the objects to be coated.
It is essential to determine optimum conditions, for type and capacity of equipment to be used for the heat curing cycle, to achieve the desired for “actual” cure times, as recommended above.
It is recommended that all ovens are fitted with extremely good air circulation fans, to optimise even cure rate and to maximise fast and even heat transfer to cure coating.
FOR FURTHER TECHNICAL ADVICE PLEASE CONTACT MANUFACTURER.
Thanks & regards
Joe
hey Joe, coated about 2k projectiles last weekend and sized up a batch as well. I finally got the hang of it after a few batches. The coating goes on clear and once heat is applied, the color comes out. Awesome stuff. Can't wait to load em up!
They look great. However, I think that you still may have some variations with heating as the colours indicate some differences, that seem to indicate by colour differences, that some were hotter that others during baking. Some appear more "green" and others are more golden.
The darker golden ones have had possibly too much heat, but should be OK.
Did they size OK?
Joe
top pills have 1 coating and the bottom pills have 3 coatings hence the difference in color.. Not sure how to heat more evenly in a convection oven. any suggestions ?
What I can recomend is that you mount an external long shaftted small motor onto side wall of oven. Have the shaft go through the wall, and inside attach a fan. You will need to make sure that shaft is long enough so front bearing in motor is kept reasonably cool.
You can get motors for ovens which have Bronze bushes instead of bearings. They last much longer with heat applications.
When loading oven with projectiles, place in single layers with air space for air circulation. Dont overload oven as you will get variations with heat distribution and cure rates.
What you need to remember, that air is a very poor conductor of heat. A mini cyclone inside oven, ensures very many contacts by air and projectiles, resulting with much faster heat transfer rates, more even heating and faster curing.
I like Topscore's method of using a moving steel mesh belt. similar to what Hungry Jacks use to cook their flame grilled burgers on.
Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor.
Australia
I agree, that mesh belt system works best. Temperature control, air circulation is at premium. But not all can afford such a unit and most do not have the volume of production required for such a unit. If set up correctly, these can put through a couple of hundred thousand per day and all would be cooked perfectly.
Have you seen the Top Score set up? I have heard, that they have upgraded their system with best possible set up for high speed production and be able to produce premium products.
Yep. I was there after the 2010 IPSC State titles and picked up 40,000 Pills. Haven't been there since. Robert calls in on his way up the coast in the B double every now and then and says G'day. I rang him just before Xmas and wished him the best for the season. Next time I'm in Sydney, I'm gunna call round and see them.
Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor.
Australia
Hi,
How did you go with what I suggested?
It would be great if you can post some more pictures and some more of your results after using the product. I am most interested in what you have found.
I think that after a few hundred batches you will be able to do this while you sleep.
It is really a very simple process, and all you have to do, when you perfect your process, is to reproduce it every time the same way.
Looking forward to your posts.
polymer paint
A paint made of acrylic resin or vinyl resin, or a combination of both resins, in a liquid form with water as the base; it spreads out in a layer, and the water evaporates to leave a continuous, flexible, and waterproof film of plastic.
I'm sorry if this has been answered already, but I didn't want to read through 33 pages of info in one sitting for an answer.
How similar is this to powder coating? I'm experimenting with powder coating since i've seen it in another forum and it really is some tough stuff.
ETA: Ok, I'm a douche... If I had read one page further, there I would have seen where all this powder coat stuff was mentioned. Please ignore this post.
Last edited by savingprivateyang; 01-21-2013 at 01:52 PM.
Any updates on your coating techniques?
Please advise
Hi,
I just make a try with toner from printer. I heat a boolit, put in the toner and re-heat. The result is not to bad. The surface is quite hard and I can't scratch it with my nail. I try to make other test this weekend.
Hi attached is a photo of the projectiles coated with the Hi-Tek-Lube Supercoats.
If you look at them it is typical of what can be expected. You can hammer the projectiles flat and coating will not come off.
There are no equivalents, and is not a gimmick. It has been used for 20 years by all type of shooters who will not use any thing else.
If you note, where the projectiles was flat on concrete, it is rough and indented, but coating is still intact. Next to it is opposite side, where hit with 8 pound hammer and is flat and smooth. If you observe, there is no cracks or chips on deformed surfaces.
This sort of tenacity is required to separate projectile from Barrel of guns.
I do not think that ink toner, that may colour surfaces, is what is required.
I doubt that Coloured ink will perform the engineering requirements as needed in shooting applications.
Last edited by HI-TEK; 02-08-2013 at 06:55 PM. Reason: more data
I don't know if you were asking me, but if you want to know more about the powder coating, check out the thread here on castboolits: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...oating-Boolits. Towards the end, there's some testing and lots of experimentation happening. I'm still personally experimenting with it also, just haven't been able to shoot cause of the weather.
Have a look at the U-Tube video part 1 and 2.
It describes in detail how the coating is used to coat projectiles.
Joe
YouTube videos:
Part1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VevKJgHseWc
Part2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7PbbtbAtE
________________________________________
Last edited by HI-TEK; 02-10-2013 at 07:16 PM. Reason: spelling mistake
Those Ny-clad boolits left ZERO fouling in my barrel except for powder residue. If they hadn't been so darn expensive, I would have shot nothing else for target practice, back when they were available.
I never really thought that they were a very good defensive round. It was basically a very soft lead slug with a little soft plastic around it. Penetration was modest at best.
“an armed society is a polite society.”
Robert A. Heinlein
"Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset."
Publius Tacitus
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |