Alumina-Polymer E-Coatings With Increased Wear Resistance

Polymer E-coat has been a common method of protecting automotive body panels and many other accessories for outdoor use against corrosion. Typically, the polymer is composed of epoxy or acrylics in a water based suspension. This work focuses on increasing the coating properties such as scratch and wear resistance, with the addition of fine dispersed ceramic into the suspension, creating a polymer matrix with reinforced ceramic particles as finish product. Also, there has been no alteration of the processing technique, which signifies a good method of improving the mechanical properties of this auto body coat. The coating chemistry and microstructure have been studied. The essential mechanical properties of the coatings have been evaluated. It is shown that by introducing the ceramic reinforcement phase, the scratch and wear resistance is increased significantly without influencing bonding properties.