ACC was asked by a market leading automotive company to develop a bespoke process for the specialist pretreatment and powdercoating of window regulators with specific functional requirements of improved noise reduction.
Utilising a powder formulation which used Teflon as a key ingredient to achieve the noise reduction properties, ACC was able to meet the customer’s requirements for a specific film thickness and gloss control. As a result, ACC gained approved supplier status and has now processed over 3 million parts over the project life cycle.
CARC coatings are by their very nature rigid and inflexible. ACC was challenged to develop a process for applying CARC paint onto polypropylene components which had a degree of flexibility.
Polypropylene is a difficult substrate to paint however with combined technical expertise and experience ACC was able able to provide its customer with a viable coating system which met the requirements of the OEM and has proven itself in years of service
Customer requests to improve corrosion performance on engine dampers led to ACC recommending a transition from iron to zinc phosphate for the pretreatment process. However the effect of zinc phosphate on ground surface areas can cause a dimensional change affecting fit and function.
Subsequently ACC developed innovative methods of pretreatment that introduced masking for the zinc phosphate pretreatment process with consistent repeatability and proven performance at high volumes.
Traditionally stainless steel has been a technically difficult substrate to achieve paint adhesion on and provide coating systems which meet the customers engineering specifications.
Our research and development in this area over the last 15 years has led to ACC being able to offer engineered coating solutions in a combination of pretreatment, liquid coating and powdercoating which achieve superior performance in highly demanding environments and operating conditions, both interior and exterior.
ACC has been pre-treating and coating magnesium for over 30 years. Recent requirements and changes in legislation has resulted in the sector moving towards more environmentally friendly alternatives. Research has been focussed on chromate free pre-treatment for magnesium.
Magnesium offers considerable weight savings in automotive and aerospace, where a 1kg saving in weight roughly equates to a 25kg saving in fuel per annum. Other areas has been focussing on methods of refining cast magnesium surfaces to achieve A-class cosmetic appearance when overcoated permitting magnesium to be used for highly visual areas where aesthetics are important.