Industrial vitreous enamelling technology

Characteristics of vitreous enamel

Vitreous enamel is a glass alike inorganic coating, which is applied on a metal substrate and fused in a high temperature furnace to establish a durable finish & strong bond.

The enamel finish will exhibit all of the properties associated with glass :

• hardness

• scratch and graffiti resistance

• colour stability

• fire resistance.

Description of vitreous enamelling process

Industrial vitreous enamelling consist basically of three primary process steps :

• Metal preparation

• Enamel application

• Firing

Depending upon the selected metal substrate & required coating properties, the process may include  multiple applications & firings and various secondary processes.

Metal preparation may be done by either cleaning, pickling or shot blasting depending upon the substrate, product design, enamelling process and level of contamination.

Enamel may be applied either in a liquid or powder form. Typical wet application methods are dipping, flow coating, spraying & electro-deposition, while powder is usually applied electro-statically.

In case of wet enamel application, the enamel film need to be dried prior to the firing process.

Depending upon their hourly production capacity and product shape, industrial enamelling furnaces may be either batch or continuous operated and are heated by means of electricity, gas or light oil.

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