True or false?

[SICK BOY]

Thanx alot for all the replies I feel safer hearing all your opinions!

It wasnt my PCer that said this it was an owner of an atv performance shop in my area. Anyhow I am going to get the big spring done black and the two smaller springs candy red,Should look pretty tight

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Where did you get that idea???

[JARE77]

You da man sick boy!

[joshv5.0]

Except for cast aluminum.

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i've powdercoated plenty of aluminum cast wheeles and have never had a problem

[RNBRAD]

i've powdercoated plenty of aluminum cast wheeles and have never had a problem

310685[/snapback]

 

Hopefully the person pc'ing your stuff knows how to do aluminum. I wouldn't want a fractured rim on a sportsbike while hitting triple digits. A good powder coater will know the proper temperature and cooling sequence to maintain strength. Here's a snippet from a reputable powder coater taken from this website. http://my.execpc.com/~davewrit/Powder.html

 

Found your article most enlightening. A metallurgist friend told me a few years ago that things like aluminum wheel spindles should not be powder coated. He explained that aluminum billet material (6061-T6 ?) changed crystal structure at a critical temperature around 410 degrees F (as I recall). The thrust was that the heating step would adversely affect the strength of the material. Non-structural components would be OK, but not something that "holds the spokes on".

 

The metallurgist is correct. Products like wheel billets, scuba tanks, etc. can be powder coated, but only with powders which cure below peak metal temperature of 300 degrees F. The magic temperature is about 275F. The crystalline realignment at 400 degrees F causes the previous ductile aluminum to become brittle. Imagine the catastrophe when an 80 cu. ft. scuba tank explodes under 3000 psi pressure after an unauthorized powder coat (this actually happened). To my knowledge, all Aluminum wheels and other strength-critical aluminum components are powder coated with these cooler curing powders.

 

Heating Al alloys above this temperature causes a granular rearrangement of the metallurgical structure resulting in a significant change of bulk properties. The tensile strength of the metal is dramatically lowered, much like a stress relief anneal on a steel piece would do. The resultant metal is not as strong, nor will

pressure vessels made of such treated aluminum (e.g., scuba tanks) hold near

the pressure that they were originally rated for. Since wheels are essentially load-bearing structures, they should never be heated like this unless the alloy is known to tolerate it well.

[racer]

a lot of import tuners heat their springs to lower the car

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true. but they arent using a PC oven. they are using an oxy/acetylene torch. the oxy torch burns like 10 times hotter than that oven.

[bansheeryder21]

Since the springs are steel you shouldn't have a problem. I powder coated over the summer and know that when you heat up alluminum, it weakends the metal. You should be staight!