Effect of curing degree and fillers on slurry erosion behavior of fusion-bonded epoxy powder coatings

Fusion-bonded epoxy powder (FBEP) coatings are received wide applications in flow-handling components such as pipelines, slurry pumps. There exists a serious problem in above conditions due to slurry erosion. The purpose of this paper is to improve the erosion resistance of FBEP coatings by controlling curing process and composition of coatings. The slurry erosion behavior of FBEP coatings has been studied by using modified rotating disk rig. The surface morphologies were observed by using SEM. The cross-linked density and microstructure were analyzed by measuring curing degree, glass transition temperature (Tg) and water absorption. The results showed that the slurry erosion resistance increased with increasing curing degree. The coating cured at 160 °C for 60 min, had more erosion resistance than the coating cured at 220 °C for 5 min, although the curing degree of the former was same as that of the latter. The characteristics of fillers played an important role in the erosion behavior of FBEP coatings. The erosion resistance increased with the increasing of the fraction and size of fillers.