Ultrasonic characterization of the curing of powder coating films based on their tan(δ)

The aim of this study was to establish a relationship between the mechanical properties of a powder coating, extracted using ultrasonic analyses, and the extent of its curing. This study was necessitated by the fact that most current methods either focus on in-process temperature monitoring or on laboratory analysis of powder samples and not on post-curing characterization of industrial samples. Working towards the objective the study involved investigating powder coating films by employing transmission mode ultrasound to extract the dimensionless material descriptor, tan(δ). It has been demonstrated that trends observed in the mechanical properties of the coatings extracted by processing the ultrasonic signal corresponded to those experimentally extracted using mechanical testing.