Statement about paint from our VP:
This has been an area that our team has been laser focused over the last 24 months. So here is what we do:
All parts on the cooker are made from hot roll mild steel that are painted as follows:
·Thoroughly wipe with acetone
·Loaded and bead blasted in our automated blaster to create a clean optimal surface to paint to adhere to. Mil profile is set to 1.00 to 1.2 mils. This is inspected daily and logged. This is a critical part of the paint process. We watch this very closely. This is a very expensive piece of equipment and I’m currently fixing to add a second machine to our facility.
·Second acetone wipe and inspection of blast profile
·Parts are hung on our line and painted with 1200° silicone paint. This is typically a 2 coat process the first coat is ¾ to 1 mill. The parts are then rotated around our line to allow them to flash and a second coat is applied. We are shooting for 2- 2.5 mils. Optimal paint will be 1 to 1.5 mil above the blast profile. If they are light we will apply a third light coat. Too much paint mil thickness is bad and will greatly reduce the adhesion of the paint.
·Parts are then transferred to our bake oven and baked to cure the coating.
·We scratch test multiple parts per day from each line. We typically run 7-8 lines per day. This test is an adhesion test that is graded in a number from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. We reject anything less than a 4 and strive for a 5.
·Part are then assembled and inspected.
·One of the final QA checkpoint is a review of the paint and overall mil thickness and appearance. If it doesn’t pass it is rejected and reworked.
We have spent a lot of money developing the process to deliver the best product. Rest assured we are using the best process and materials that can be purchased to build a product in our price point. Our paint comes from Dampney, and they are the #1 producer of high heat paint in the world. Dampney periodically visits our facility to review the process. We do routine reviews of the entire process to be sure that we are staying on track and nothing is changing. This includes send sample panels to lab to be tested on a regular basis.
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