I was told by a wheel manufacturer that powdercoating can lead to a weakening of the material being baked. ie; loses hardness. Does anyone have any experience or relevant info of a loss of strength after baking? I was kinda hoping I could do a nice set of wheels I have but now I'm looking at regular paint.

 

There is alot of powder coated rims out there i cant see why it would weaken the rims?

 

Personally, I would trust the maufacturer on this one. Depending on the process used to produce the metal the baking process can cause the atomic structure of the material to realign. This process is called annealing and it causes a reduction of the hardness of the metal.

 

I think that trusting what the manufacturer says would be true, except for the fact of not knowing who the individual is that you are talking to. If you were indead talking to one of the design engineers, then what they say may be valid. If it was just somebody who happens to pick up the phone, then it may not be really true (a salesman would want you to not modify your rims, but to buy new ones).

Personally, I don't see the heat of powder coating changing the metal structure that much.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mct121 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This process is called annealing and it causes a reduction of the hardness of the metal.

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im so glad we got ppl like u on honda-tech....i've never even heard of that word before haha

but on the subject again....
i honestly dont see why it would weaken the rim if u baked it....or maybe i just dont know it would....i know plenty of ppl that have painted there stock rims or painted there aftermarket rims and have came out good...just lettin u know incase u dont wanna take the chance of weakening ur rim....painting doesn't look all that bad.....untill u tell somebody and there all...."you painted ur rim dude...ur so ghetto!" hahaha
j/k man

 

It depends on the alloy the wheel is made from. Certain alloys such as t6061 t6 would not be a good alloy to coat because it is already at full hardness and could overage rather quickly causing a loss in mechanical properties. Are your rims a casted aluminum or some sort of forged alloy? In any case, there wont be a problem as long as you keep the cure at the lower end of the spectrum. Many wheels are powder coated from the manufacturer and i coat wheels all the time with no loss of strength.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

The wheels are Centerline RPMs. As you all know they are "rotary forged" and very tough. The person I spoke with at Centerline said they had tested powdercoating on their wheels and the process had reduced the hardness of the metal so they did not produce any. He wasn't explicit about what tests were done or how much strength they had lost but instead recommended regular paint. All their colored wheels are painted. He did mention, as mct121 did, that there was an annealing affect.

Anyway, I will be painting them just to be sure. Too bad tho, my powdercoating setup is up and running.