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Central to this investment is the pre treatment plant, manufactured by Vixen Surface Treatments Ltd. This cleans and etches the metal surface to be coated, producing a uniform surface. This, in turn, improves the bonding of the powder coat, minimises any oxidation and improves corrosion resistance.
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The Vixen plant has been built specifically for our requirements. This is essentially a front-loading, stainless steel, cleaning machine, in which components to be cleaned are hung and subjected to a chemical cleaning process. In order to meet the stringent standards required for powder coating of building industry components, the plant has been developed to be run with a 9-stage cycle of chemical washes and rinses. This is the most involved cleaning cycle ever devised by Vixen for one of their machines, making it unique in the world.
Advantages of the Vixen pre treatment process over conventional methods:
- Suitable for the construction industry - Operates to BS6496 and EN12206, the required standards for external architectural purposes. This enables the company to offer 25 year guarantees to customers. Multi Fab are one of only 12 suppliers in the UK who can coat to this standard, and are the only ones who do so using a Vixen machine.
- Future proofed - future legislation may dictate that all pre treatment processes are “chromate free”. The Vixen plant is suitable for both chromate, and chromate-free chemicals.
- Health & safety - as a completely enclosed process, this ensures that operatives are not exposed to potentially harmful chemicals.
- Conventional multiple tank processes not required - these conventional systems require a large amount of space, as well as providing a health & safety hazard to operatives.
- Large capacity - 4.2 metre x 2.0 metre x 2.0 metre enables a large range of component sizes to be pre-treated.Conventional tank systems are normally geared towards a narrow range of component sizes, and are therefore limited in their applications.
Galvanizing, zinc plating and other finishes can also be arranged if required.
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