News | Porcelain enamel frit Manufacturer

History of Vitreous Enamel

Vitreous enamel, also known as porcelain enamel, has been used for thousands of years. Initially used for religious and ceremonial items and then also for Jewellery of the highest quality. The application of vitreous enamel is described as enamelling. The application of enamel to domestic articles such as pots and pans probably started in the early 19^th century in central Europe.

The first metal used for this purpose was cast iron. Today, vitreous enamel can be applied to copper, gold, silver, cast iron, steel and aluminium, dependent on the enamel formula. Production of vitreous enamelled articles varies from craftsmen producing one off items in precious metal to factories producing up to 12000 cookers per week with a very high proportion of the parts coated with vitreous enamel.

This article comes from wgball edit released

High Gloss Industrial Enamel Surface Coating

Industrial Enamel is a modified single pack urethane enamel made in a high gloss finish. It can be applied to a variety of surfaces including Concrete, Timber and Metal Surfaces that have been primed with a suitable Metal Primer. Industrial Enamel is for interior use only.

Features

Industrial Enamel has excellent durability for a single pack coating. It has very good corrosive and abrasive properties. It is hard-wearing when cured and has excellent Gloss and Colour retention.

Preparation

All surfaces must be free from Rust, Oil, Grease, and all other surface contamination. Bare concrete should be acid etched to increase surface porosity.

Application

Brush, roller, spray. Stir thoroughly before use. Use a good quality brush and a good quality solvent resistant sleeve. Spray application will depend on the type of finish required.

Thinning

For spray application thin 10% – 15% Mineral Turps. Do not thin for brush or roll applications. For bare concrete thin the first coat by 20% – 25% using Mineral Turps.

Drying and Recoating

Industrial Enamel will be touch dry after 25mins (at 25°C) and can be recoated within 4 hours or after 24 hours.

This article comes from nutechpaint edit released

The Use of Mixed Metal Oxide Pigments in Industrial Coatings

Mixed metal oxide pigments offer a multitude of benefits for the coatings formulator, including excellent outdoor durability, chemical resistance and heat stability.

Mixed metal oxide (MMO) pigments, also known as complex inorganic color pigments (CICPs), have been around since the early 1800s. Their use in the ceramic and pottery industries is well known due to their overall inertness, which contributes to outstanding heat, chemical and UV resistance. The use of MMOs in industrial coatings is less common and more for special purposes. This paper will discuss the benefits of formulating coatings with MMOs as a replacement for, or in conjunction with, the more common organic types.

Mixed metal oxide pigments are compounds comprised of a group of two or more metals and oxygen. The most common crystal structures are rutile (MeO2) hematite (Me2O3) or spinel (Me3O4). Metals commonly present include: cobalt, iron, trivalent chrome, tin, antimony, titanium, manganese and aluminum. Different metal combinations produce a wide spectrum of hues ranging from black to brown to green, blue, yellow and red. All MMOs are produced by a calcination process consisting of an intimate mixture of appropriate metal precursor materials being fired at temperatures of 800 to 1300 °C. It is this calcining process that creates the extremely stable metal oxide bonds. The chemical stability of these bonds affords the outstanding durability of this class of color pigments.

UV Durability

The chemical inertness of inorganic MMOs renders their excellent resistance to UV radiation and the elements encountered in the most extreme outdoor environments. Most organic pigments degrade when exposed for more than a few years in UV-intense tropical environments. High-performance organic pigments that do provide acceptable durability are typically very expensive, commanding two to four times the cost of a metal oxide pigment. MMOs are therefore the colorant material of choice for architectural coatings requiring extremely high durability such as the performance specified in AAMA 2605-05 (Architectural Aluminum Manufacturers Association). This specification calls for maintenance of color and gloss after 10 years exposure in south Florida.

Chemical Resistance

The exceptionally stable chemical bonds characteristic of MMO pigments make them insoluble in most chemicals including strong acid and alkali, and virtually all organic solvents. Because of this insolubility, coatings formulated with MMOs will not lose color due to pigment degradation even with the most extreme exposure to aggressive chemicals. Atmospheric pollution including acid rain, volcanic fallout and waste incineration does not chemically attack these pigments. Moreover, coatings requiring resistance to strong chemical exposure such as laboratory and chemical manufacturing facilities can use MMOs and be assured of color stability.

Heat Resistance

The thermal stability of MMOs is well known in the ceramic and pottery industries. This class of pigments is processed for hours at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1300 °C in their manufacture. Consequently, they are chemically and color stable at these temperatures in service. As mentioned, the ceramic industry has used mixed metal oxides for color glazes for centuries. The glazes used in ceramics are regularly fired at temperatures of 985 to 1300 °C (1800 to 2350 °F) without significant color shift. The use of MMOs in thermally stable coating formulations such as those based on silicone (polysiloxane) resins brings a palette superseding the traditional black and silver high-heat choices. This brings an attractive array of color possibilities to the designer of specialized and sport transportation such as motorcycles, ATVs and jet skis.

This article comes from pcimag edit released

Porcelain enamelling

Porcelain enamelling, also called Vitreous Enamelling, process of fusing a thin layer of glass to a metal object to prevent corrosion and enhance its beauty. Porcelain-enamelled iron is used extensively for such articles as kitchen pots and pans, bathtubs, refrigerators, chemical and food tanks, and equipment for meat markets. In architecture it serves as facing for buildings. Being a glass, porcelain enamelling has the properties of glass: a hard surface, resistance to solution, corrosion, and scratching. Enamelware is usually quite resistant to acid and impact, but may crack if the base metal is deformed.

In general, base items consist of fabricated steel, iron castings such as bathtubs and stoves, or, for kitchenware, a good grade of low-carbon sheet iron formed in the shape of the utensil by pressing or drawing, by spinning, and by trimming, with handles, spouts, and ears welded in place. The base items are cleaned by physical means such as sandblasting or by pickling in acid. Next a coating mixture of ground glass, clay, and water is applied and dried. The ware then is fired in a furnace. For cast-iron dry-process enamels, powdered glass is dusted over the hot ware; as it melts it forms a continuous layer of enamel. For wet-process enamels, a second liquid layer of cover enamel is applied.

This article comes from britannica edit released

The Porcelain Enamel

Porcelain enamel is a mixture of mineral content glass and inorganic pigments fused to a steel substrate at temperatures exceeding 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. This extreme temperature literally melts and fuses the pigments to the steel, forming a molecular bond and creating a permanent coating.

Graphics are applied with glass-based inks by a variety of methods including traditional screen printing, stenciling and a high resolution photographic process. Each color is applied and fired one layer at a time. This process produces the most visually striking and durable signage material available.

Common Applications

Interpretive and wayfinding signage for national,

state, and local parks, zoos, aquariums and municipalities.

This article comes from kvoindustries edit released

About The Whiteness of Enamel

White enamel is very common in our daily life. For example, we can easily find white enamel cookware in a kitchen, and white enamel signs around street or white enamel wallboard in subway station.

White enamel must be coated as cover coat, it always need at least “two coat two firing”. To ensure the smooth enamel surface and perfect color.

To evaluate the quality of white enamel, whiteness is a very important aspect.

Whiteness of enamel is measured by the relative percentage of a standard white enameled template (magnesium oxide or barium sulfate). The whiteness of the enamel depends mainly on its opacifying properties, also by its hue, ie the whiteness of the enamel is related to its hue (referred to as whiteness measurement), that is, the hue of the standard template. If the hue of the standard template is yellowish white, the whiteness will be low for enamel template in bluish white, And for enamel template in yellowish white, the whiteness will be higher.

Hunan Noli Enamel Co., Ltd is the leader manufacturer of enamel frit in China. We can supply many types of white enamel frit. Differs from its whiteness and firing temperature. The whiteness of our super white frit (2200,2201,2202) can be at least 95%. And ourTitanium white frit 222 with very low firing temperature, its whiteness can be 90%.

Nolifrit Strategic Cooperation with Steel Factory

In early March, Nolifrit went to Shandong province to visit steel plate factory, to look for reliable steel plate partner who can supply enamel grade steel plate with stable quality for strategic cooperation.

As a enamel frit expert, We focused on enamel coating since 1995, accumulated more than 500 customers. All of our customers need steel plate for their production, so we’re also willing to help customers to find good steel plate supplier with lower price, to reduce the total cost for customer and let them stay competitive in their market.

Steel plate plays a very important role in enamel industry. It influences greatly the enamel coating effect, as it need to contact directly with enamel ground coat, its surface pretreatment, carbon contain, and ductility will make big difference on enamel smoothness, adherence and max depth of a enamelware.

Hunan Noli Enamel Co., Ltd can also help customer to get steel plate they need, and 100% ensure the steel plate can meet with the requirement and work well with our enamel frit. Before the bulk order, we usually advise customer to place a small trial order to test steel plate in their production line and make sure no fish scale problem happened.

How to Choose Cast Iron for Enamel

Cast iron can be used to make high quality enamel cookware, bathtub, stove grill in our daily life and even enamel pumps in industrial area. They are playing a more and more important role in enamel coating industry.

(Cast iron enamel cookware and stove grill)

(Cast iron enamel bathtub)

How to choose suitable cast iron for enamel? Nolifrit can help you to make decision!

Chemical analysis: To achieve the best enamel coating effect on cast iron, the following limiting values of the main elements in cast iron should be kept:

No	Element	Symbol	Contents(%)
1)	Carbon, total	C	3.20-3.40
2)	Carbon, combined	C	max. 0.20
3)	Silicon	Si	2.50-3.25
4)	Manganese	Mn	max. 0.45
5)	Phosphorus	P	0.25-1.00
6)	Sulphur	S	max. 0.12
7)	Chromium	Cr	max. 0.05
8)	Copper	Cu	max. 0.10
9)	Molybdenum	Mo	max. 0.05
10)	Nickel	Ni	max. 0.10
11)	Titanium	Ti	max. 0.05
12)	Vanadium	V	max. 0.05
13)	Tin	Sn	max. 0.10

The silicon content plays an important role. Low silicon contents, below 2.5 %, are slowing down the ferritisation process so that it is not finalized after the enamelling process has been completed. An elevated outgassing, due to the conversion of perlite, causes pores and pin holes during the final stage of firing.

Because of the perlite stabilizing effect, manganese contents more than 0.45 % should be avoided. They lead to an embrittlement and to a formation of strong stresses in the composite material cast iron / enamel.

Particularly critical for the enamel coating are the trace elements Chromium, Molybdenum, Nickel, Titanium and Vanadium if the above mentioned maximal concentrations are exceeded. Consequently the perlite is that much stabilized, that only an incomplete composition to ferrite takes place during enamelling. It leads to a fluctuating expansion behaviour of the casting, depending upon its wall thickness.

The sulphur content is in particular to consider by applying the wet enamelling process for cast iron. Sulphur contents up to max. 0.12 % in general do not cause defects.

Higher sulphur contents can lead to severe difficulties in the enamelling because of the diffusion of sulphur towards the cast iron surface. During the hot process the velocity of oxidation is that much increased, that the thereby formed quantities of iron oxide cannot be absorbed by the enamel.

The formation of stresses within the composite system cast iron / enamel is mainly, under consideration of different designs, a matter of the structure of the cast iron. After the casting process the structure must be pearlitic, not cementitic.

For the enamel coating process the surface of the cast iron has to be clean and free of burned in sand. Its medium roughness should not exceed 300 microns.

For cleaning the cast iron prior to enamelling only angular shot blasting material on the basis of cast-steel or chilled cast iron has been proved. Both grades are having the essential hardness and edge stability (Vickers-Hardness HV above 650). Fractionated corundum also is very well suitable.

Spray enamel coating in wet process

Spray enamel coating is to compress air to spray enamel slurry or powder to body metal. Spray enamel coating in wet process is prevented first, then in the mid of 20th century, dry powder spray is prevented, it’s to use electrostatic adsorption to let enamel powder adhere on body metal. There’re mainly 2 ways of spray enamel coating in wet process: handwork spraying and automatic machine spraying.

1, Handwork spraying

Handwork spraying can be applied to almost all product, especially for those which has very elaborate line and pattern for decorations and with very complex shape. The weakness for handwork spraying is low efficiency, high labor strength for the workers. And the quality of final products depends much on workers’operation proficiency

For spray enamel coating in wet process, the caliber of spray gun can be adjusted according to types of enamelware and property of enamel slurry. Enamel slurry can be supplied by cup on spray gun or peripheral express tank. For product with little usage amount and need to change frequently, the cup on spray gun is suitable. For example, enamel cookware which always need to coated with patterns in many colors for decorations. When the using amount of enamel slurry is very huge and with single type, peripheral express tank will be better. For example, stove grill, cast iron cookware with single color and big architecture panels. For these, enamel slurry in express tank will easily sink, so the enamel slurry inside need to be swigged constantly to keep its balance, to prevent any bad effects due to the sink of enamel slurry.

To achieve better atomization effect, enamel slurry for spray enamel coating in wet process should be finer, but also need to pay enough attention to the quality after drying and firing. To prevent cracking and shrink of enamel surface. The specific gravity of enamel slurry better be higher. As with higher specific gravity, spraying time can be reduced. For single faced coating, required coating thickness can be attained as long as spray gun passed it for few times.

2, Automatic machine spraying

For big objects, automatic machine spraying should be applied.

The products will be horizontally hanged and pass through a channel with many spray gun around. Spraying can be done automatically when the product passed through.

Enamel pots should be placed on the transmit line and sprayed with many spray guns. Every spray gun should be adjusted with suitable anger and be fixed. To coating every face of product with required standard. When product pass through the scope that the spray gun can reach, except to go forward, it should also turn around, to ensure full coating. Enamel slurry supply system of automatic spraying machine usually include express tank, tube, liquid level control, and filter sieve etc…supply system will transport enamel slurry to spray gun. Traditional supply system is express tank, it can be used for store and also offer high express to transport. Then develop to store tank with diaphragm pump together. This makes it more convenient for continuous enamel slurry supply or change enamel slurry types and easy to clean after work.

Dipping enamel coating in wet process

Wet process enameling is to coat enamel slurry to metal body. There are mainly 3 ways for wet process enameling: dipping, spraying and flow coating. First, let’s know about dipping enamel coating.

Dipping is the most primitive and easy way in enamel coating. It’s fit for product in single color. If metal body is small and with simple shape, we just need to dip it in enamel slurry and take it out after it adsorb enough enamel slurry, then wipe off redundant enamel slurry. If metal body is complicated, we will need turn it in enamel slurry and swing, turn or hook it to wipe off redundant enamel slurry. To achieve a uniform enamel coating .

The specific gravity and stop flow of enamel slurry is of crucial importance. Need to be measured constantly. When the stop flow of enamel slurry is low, it will need stop flow additive to adjust. For metal body with different sizes and complexities, there’re also different requirements for its specific gravity and stop flow.

1, For small product with complex shape. Specific gravity and stop flow of enamel slurry should be higher. The quality of enamel coatingdepends more on the worker’s operant level

2, For big product with simple shape. specific gravity and stop flow of enamel slurry can be lower. For the production of this product, dipping and swing can be done by one worker and other assistant works done by another operator. By this, enamel coating process is dispersed by specific workers, which makes enamel coating with high quality and more stable and the physical exhaustions of workers is also divided.

3, For product with multiple coating and firing, ground coat thickness need to be as thin as possible, to reduce the problems that happen in subsequent process. Especially for the product with decal, as the problem will mostly appear in decal firing. Traditional tools and facilities for enamel dipping is very simple, mainly include jar, pliers, grill. For products need special handle on the edge, there’re also special tools, such as: side wipe rubber, rolling case and plate. Those tools are all customized without any standard model for it.

In reasonable enamel coating process, enamel slurry should be coated on metal body with uniform thickness. It will make big difference to final product’s property. Also will affect the quality and appearance of enamelware.