Powder-coating a frame?

Afternoon, all.

I have an inside source that can powder-coat my frame for a decent price. Has anyone done this? I hear it stands up to abuse much better than paint, but are there any pitfalls to it?
How does it hold up in your experience?
Does it add significant weight?
Pardon my ignorance if these questions seem silly, but it's totally new to me.

 

www.spectrumpowderworks.com

 

I haven't powder coated a frame, but have tested powder coating for other metal parts that I manufacture. I ended up going with hard anodizing, but powder coating is also nice. Powder coating is more chip resistant than paint because the process actually embeds the color in the metal rather than being on the surface only. The prep is key and the gloss will never be greater than the gloss of the original metal, so if you want a high-gloss finish you need to start with a highly polished metal frame. The specific composition of the metal alloy matters, so you want to ensure that your powder coater has powder coated your specific metal alloy. As to whether it's necessary, that's a personal call. My frame never gets scratched or bumped in normal use, so I'm not overly concerned with a finish that can take abuse. I don't think powder coating will add much weight (if any). It's kind of tough to mask parts that are powder coated, so you'll probably end up doing the entire frame and then adding any decorative color or logos with paint.

 

What a load.

 

the stuff is tough as nails. It's a real fine powder that they spray onto the part and then bake. The powder is actually some kind of plastic or polyester resin that melts to a smooth surface when it gets hot and then solidifies as it cools. The powder is held onto the part by electrostatic attraction. I believe the spray gun nozzle is held at a voltage so the powder gets charged as it sprays, and then the part being sprayed is grounded so it pulls the powder on to it.

The only concern is that the heat from the baking would partially anneal the frame if its an aluminum frame. And I've heard conflicting opinions on whether this is the case or not.

 

Check the daffynition of anneal, and then check what www.specturmpowderworks has to say about aluminum.

 

I know the definition of anneal and I know what spectrum has to say about it but I'm saying that you will find some disagreement on the subject.

The temperatures used in powder coating aren't really on the level of the temperatures used to anneal 7000 series but they are higher than the temperatures used during the artificial aging of same.

The original post says he's going through a local powdercoater not Spectrum.

In which case you never know, some knucklehead might crank the oven up too high, leave the parts in the oven overnight. If they are used to powdercoating cold rolled steel they might not know how to treat a bicycle frame.

 

I'll go with what the experts in the business say and leave the 'street wisdom' to the morons.