IFS PureClad 

Stronger. Safer. Better.

Groundbreaking new powder coatings for heat sensitive substrates 

Incredibly fast, low cure IFS PureClad powder delivers technical excellence and a superior finish on heat sensitive substrates like wood and MDF.

 

Powder for heat sensitive substrates

IFS PureClad is an industry changing line of powder coatings to provide a stronger, safer, better finishing solution for heat sensitive products like engineered and natural wood materials.

The IFS PureClad range offers a wide choice of low cure powder chemistries that will deliver outstanding technical performance. 

All PureClad powders:

  • Deliver tough, durable protection.
  • Offer endless customization options: colors, textures, gloss levels.
  • Are environmentally friendly and safer for everyone involved.
  • Ability to evenly coat complex shapes.
  • Can be coated with a relatively small shop footprint.
  • Deliver maximum production efficiency with high line densities, fast application and curing.
  • Most applications require only a single layer of coating. 
  • Offer a simple, repeatable finishing process.
  • Can be formulated with additional functionality to add value, such as antimicrobial properties
  • Come with technical & operational support, from start to finish

Contact the IFS PureClad team direct for details!

 Kitchen cabinets and furniture

PureClad Products

PureClad X

PureClad X boasts superior application characteristics and is a single coat application with great sandability, as well as:

  • Outdoor weathering – great color fastness and gloss retention
  • Good sandability
  • No yellowing
  • Excellent water resistance
  • Excellent cleaning product and stain resistance
  • Maintains flexibility over time (no brittleness)
  • Good stability
  • Good overbake stability
  • Good storage stability (ideally at 80F) for around 6 months
  • Applies uniformly with excellent film build – no fatty edges
  • Good edge outgassing forgiveness
  • Good recoatability
  • Cure temperatures as low as 240F for around 6 minutes
  • Suitable for Hardwoods (due to the low temperature cure window)
  • Available in a range of colors
  • A smooth finish with gloss as low as ~25

 

PureClad Primer

PureClad powder primer adds technical performance to your finish and can increase throughput and reduce time and energy.

PureClad primers will accept a powder or liquid top coat and deliver excellent water resistance, chemical resistance and stain resistance. PureClad primers offer:

  • A single coat primer solution
  • Enables parts to be primed, stored then sanded or shipped for coating later
  • Good sandability – reduces the amount of sanding required
  • Customized sandability solutions
  • Superior filling capabilities on routed surfaces
  • Great flexibility to accommodate the deformation of wood that occurs over time
  • Works in combination with spackle
  • Accepts a powder or liquid top coat
  • Great flow and easy application
  • Good recoatability
Contact the IFS PureClad team direct for details!

Applications

Typical applications include, but are not limited to:

  • Kitchen cabinetry
  • Bathroom cabinetry
  • Garage cabinetry
  • Furniture
  • Residential cladding
  • Moldings
  • Wood/fiberglass 

Application Efficiency

PureClad powders offer cost effective, robust processing, with a fast, low temperature cure and minimal waste. PureClad powder offer application advantages including:

  • Easy powder application
  • Excellent flow, which results in a beautiful finish
  • Cure takes as little as 6 minutes in a gas catalytic IR cure oven. Learn more about catalytic oven technology here
  • 265°F oven temperature - sufficiently low to accommodate standard MDF as well as many natural wood materials
  • Coating and curing takes only about 10 minutes (an extremely favorable comparison to liquid paints!)
  • Excellent temperature stability
  • Safely stored at room temperatures.
  • Safer for people and the environment

Unlike traditional low-cure chemistry, with PureClad powder you don’t have to compromise on production speed, efficiency, or technical performance.

Contact the IFS PureClad team direct for details!

 

Color Choice

Give your piece the look you want:

  • IFS PureClad is available in a range of colors including various RALs, neutrals and brighter shades
  • PureClad powders can be formulated to achieve a variety of textures, sparkles and effects.
  • Custom color matching is also available

The Environmentally Responsible Choice

IFS PureClad is an environmental friendly coating solution for heat sensitive substrates that not only delivers technical excellence but also:

  • Contains no harmful VOC emissions
  • Boasts an impressive carbon footprint
  • Can be reclaimed and reused or recycled
  • Cures at lower temperatures so reduces energy consumption
  • No hazardous waste is created in either manufacture or application

 

Contact the IFS PureClad team direct for details!

IFS PureClad is an industry changing line of powder coatings to provide a stronger, safer, better finishing solution for heat sensitive products like engineered and natural wood materials.

 

PureClad Products

The IFS PureClad range offers a wide choice of low cure powder chemistries that will deliver outstanding technical performance. 

All PureClad powders:

·       Deliver tough, durable protection.

·       Offer endless customization options: colors, textures, gloss levels.

·       Are environmentally friendly and safer for everyone involved.

·       Ability to evenly coat complex shapes.

·       Can be coated with a relatively small shop footprint.

·       Deliver maximum production efficiency with high line densities, fast application and curing.

·       Most applications require only a single layer of coating. 

·       Offer a simple, repeatable finishing process.

·       Can be formulated with additional functionality to add value, such as antimicrobial properties

·       Come with technical & operational support, from start to finish

PureClad X

PureClad X boasts superior application characteristics and is a single coat application with great sandability, as well as:

·       Outdoor weathering – great color fastness and gloss retention

·       Good sandability

·       No yellowing

·       Excellent water resistance

·       Excellent cleaning product and stain resistance

·       Maintains flexibility over time (no brittleness)

·       Good stability

·       Good overbake stability

·       Good storage stability (ideally at 80F) for around 6 months

·       Applies uniformly with excellent film build – no fatty edges

·       Good edge outgassing forgiveness

·       Good recoatability

·       Cure temperatures as low as 240F for around 6 minutes

·       Suitable for Hardwoods (due to the low temperature cure window)

·       Available in a range of colors

·       A smooth finish with gloss as low as ~25

 

 

PureClad Primer

PureClad powder primer adds technical performance to your finish and can increase throughput and reduce time and energy.

PureClad primers will accept a powder or liquid top coat and deliver excellent water resistance, chemical resistance and stain resistance. PureClad primers offer:

·       A single coat primer solution

·       Enables parts to be primed, stored then sanded or shipped for coating later

·       Good sandability – reduces the amount of sanding required

·       Customized sandability solutions

·       Superior filling capabilities on routed surfaces

·       Great flexibility to accommodate the deformation of wood that occurs over time

·       Works in combination with spackle

·       Accepts a powder or liquid top coat

·       Great flow and easy application

·       Good recoatability

 

Applications

Typical applications include, but are not limited to:

·       Kitchen cabinetry

·       Bathroom cabinetry

·       Garage cabinetry

·       Furniture

·       Residential cladding

·       Moldings

·       Wood/fiberglass doors

 

Application Efficiency

PureClad powders offer cost effective, robust processing, with a fast, low temperature cure and minimal waste.

 

PureClad offer many application advantages, including:

 

 

·       Easy powder application

·       Excellent flow, which results in a beautiful finish

·       Cure takes as little as 6 minutes in a gas catalytic IR cure oven. Learn more about catalytic oven technology here

·       265°F oven temperature - sufficiently low to accommodate standard MDF as well as many natural wood materials

·       Coating and curing takes only about 10 minutes (an extremely favorable comparison to liquid paints!)

·       Excellent temperature stability

·       Safely stored at room temperatures.

·       Safer for people and the environment

 

Unlike traditional low-cure chemistry, with PureClad powder you don’t have to compromise on production speed, efficiency, or technical performance.

 

Color Choice

Give your piece the look you want:

·       IFS PureClad is available in a range of colors including various RALs, neutrals and brighter shades

·       PureClad powders can be formulated to achieve a variety of textures, sparkles and effects.

·       Custom color matching is also available

The Environmentally Responsible Choice

IFS PureClad is an environmental friendly coating solution for heat sensitive substrates that not only delivers technical excellence but also:

·       Contains no harmful VOC emissions

·       Boasts an impressive carbon footprint

·       Can be reclaimed and reused or recycled

·       Cures at lower temperatures so reduces energy consumption

·       No hazardous waste is created in either manufacture or application

 

 

 

 

 

 

We shall overcome…

A lot of time, money and R&D investment has gone into the development of IFS PureClad, the groundbreaking new powder coating for non-metal substrates. There were many challenges to overcome, from the historical issues around powder coating substrates like wood and MDF, to ensuring that the issues around the current technologies in use – like thermofoil, laminate and liquid paint, are overcome.

Check out some of the key issues, and what we overcame!

Overcoming the historical issues of powder coating non metal substrates

In a nutshell, the history of attempts to advance powder coating beyond metal is the story of a struggle to get over a handful of challenges that together, had to be overcome for success.

Briefly summarizing the issues, we are left with five areas of concern.

First up, achieving cure, without compromising aesthetics or performance, at temperatures sufficiently low to avoid damaging heat sensitive materials like engineered and natural wood during the cure process.

Trimac catalytic IR oven for lab

Another issue, particularly with respect to powder coating engineered wood-based substrates like MDF, was to mitigate the effects of moisture content, which effects deposition during electrostatic application and can result in outgassing during cure.

Yet another technical hurdle centered on sorting out how to uniformly apply powder to non-conductive or minimally conductive substrates; as well as materials which conductivity can vary considerably across the surface of the substrate.

If all of that were not enough, we also had to understand that wood-based materials don’t behave themselves after finishing. These materials shrink and swell over the life of finished products as they absorb and release moisture; and the coating has to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate this tendency without cracking or peeling.

Finally, because these challenges required solutions from multiple disciplines, it is necessary to align the community of allied suppliers (raw material and powder coating manufacturers, application equipment and oven suppliers, and coaters) to provide the market with the complete, robust powder coating alternative to incumbent coating processes and technologies.

Luckily, PureClad overcomes each of these issues. Much formulation research as well as developments in application and curing systems, eventually led to IFS PureClad. PureClad cures at 265F in a catalytic IR oven for only a few minutes, and this low temperature combined with the catalytic IR oven capability overcomes the issue of damage to heat sensitive substrates. PureClad powder delivers a beautiful, smooth finish, with the flexibility to adapt to the shrinking/swelling issues these substrates display, and an outgassing forgiving formula that can be uniformly applied. Thanks to work done by allied suppliers, not only is the powder available, but so are the means to apply and cure it without requiring a huge amount of space.

Check out our short application animation for a 2 minute view of the application process.

Overcoming the issues incumbent technologies suffer from

As well as solving the issues historically associated with powder for non-metal substrates, IFS PureClad also overcomes many of the problems and issues associated with other technologies currently being used on cabinetry, furniture and more

Thermofoil is a popular choice used on cabinetry, as compared with liquid paints it’s quick to apply, the material cost is pretty cheap and it gives a uniform look. There are plenty of design options, it’s a low maintenance finish for the home owner and it’s also chip or crack resistant.

IFS PureClad will deliver on each of these advantages, boasting excellent chip and crack resistance, and a quick and efficient application cycle that can deliver a huge array of colors and also special effects like textures.

However, Thermofoil does not have good UV or heat resistance. When it’s exposed to these types of elements the Thermofoil will yellow and become brittle. It’s also prone to delamination, especially if exposed to heat/humidity, which is clearly an issue for use in kitchens or bathrooms. There are also environmental issues: it causes unnecessary waste, and it does not easily degrade, and when it does, it gives off dioxins & phthalates.

IFS PureClad can overcome all of these problems! As a thermosetting powder, it’s tough and durable – not brittle – regardless of the environment it’s in. It also boasts all the environmental advantages of powder coatings.

Formica is another alternative that is also quicker to apply than liquid paint and has a reasonably low material cost. It does have good stain resistance, and of course, it’s easy to clean and wipe down. It delivers good scratch and mar resistance and is available in a great choice of aesthetic options

IFS PureClad has great chemical and stain resistance and the smooth, durable surface is easy to maintain and wipe down and it scores top marks for scratch and mar resistance.

The downside of laminate? It has a tendency to crack and peel in high-humidity, warm environment. The edges require edge banding and there are aesthetic issues; only slight contouring is possible, and seams are unavoidable. It also has a relatively short service-life – only 10-15 years - and cannot be recycled.

IFS PureClad overcomes each of these issues!

footmarks made from green grass

The other competing technology is solvent borne liquid paint.

There are a lot of reasons why powder has the advantage over liquid paint, however in the era of sustainable design, making the environmentally responsible choice has to be near the top.

Solvents – and therefore VOC’s - are bad. That’s simple. What’s more, VOC abatement is expensive  - and the penalties are even more expensive! Add to that the fact that the opaque paints used for wood/MDF average around 33% solids and the rest is waste. That’s a really poor utilization rate as well as being bad for the environment.

Talking of waste, and efficiencies, in a typical high-production cabinet front coating operation, transfer efficiencies average 50-65%. Again, the rest is waste.

Opaque liquid finishes require 4-6 coats (depending on the color chosen), with sanding on every coat except the topcoat. This removes 4-6% of the paint each time, and in the best-case scenarios (excluding UV, which is very limited), each coat needs 10-15 minutes of oven time to cure. That’s a really long, expensive, application process with high energy usage.

IFS PureClad comes with all the sustainability advantages powder coatings deliver, as well as the technical excellence required.