When working on a project with high-performance coatings, you need to consider how to measure coating thickness to ensure it meets specifications. Coating thickness is often the key to ensuring your coating performs as it should when applied and used. Generally speaking, the thicker it is, the more protection it will give your substrate, but that's not always the case, and sometimes over-applying is just as bad as under-applying. Coating thickness can be important for water resistance, corrosion resistance, adhesion on rough surfaces, aesthetics, etc., but in most cases it is used with steel paint. By monitoring and recording your coating thickness readings , you can be sure of getting a high-quality finish that will perform as intended, and as an added bonus, you won't be wasting material and money unnecessarily.
You can try two methods to test coating thickness:
Coating Thickness Gauge
Coating Thickness Gauges are used where the coating has already been applied and cured, they use a probe that, when in contact with the surface, gives you a reading. Coating Thickness Gauges are commonly used at various stages of a project to check existing coatings on surfaces to ensure they are suitable for overpainting, to check progress throughout the project to ensure that every coat applied is to specification, and finally Project at the end of construction to check that all areas have received the DFT (Dry Film Thickness) they should meet specifications. If you want an easy-to-use tool, we recommend the Coating Thickness Gauge (C5007). This gauge is perfect for measuring all coatings on any metal substrate. A magnetic induction probe using the eddy current principle means you can check that the correct coating thickness has been applied to your surface. This tool is one of the most professional on the market, which means you can rest assured that you are making the right decisions about your paint.
Wet film measurement
Another way to measure coatings is to use wet film measurements. This method measures the thickness of a coating while it is still wet - WFT (Wet Film Thickness). We think the Tricomb Plastic Wet Film Gauge (W2008) is a good choice because you can test wet film thickness quickly and inexpensively, and even let them dry to record coating thickness. These wet film gauges are disposable and have the metric value on the front of the gauge and the imperial value on the back for you to measure. The advantage of wet film gauges over dry Film Thickness Gauges is that they allow the applicator of the coating to instantly adjust the application as needed to increase the thickness they are applying or decrease the thickness they are applying to the substrate in order to Make sure to apply it correctly.
Once you decide which method to use to monitor your application, or if you decide to use both methods effectively, you need to make sure you understand the difference between wet film thickness and dry film thickness. Although the description makes them fairly self-explanatory, it's easy to figure out wrong numbers from specs or datasheets in the field or under pressure to meet a deadline, especially when they're abbreviated WFT and DFT.
The wet film thickness figures given on the specification relate to the thickness of a freshly applied and still wet coating, once the coating begins the drying process, solvents and volatiles will leave the coating and its thickness will decrease, once cured it can Read its dry film thickness. How much the thickness is reduced depends on the volume solids of the coating, the higher the volume solids of the product, the less stuff escapes from the coating, so the less the thickness is reduced. For example, if the coating specifies that you apply at a WFT (wet film thickness) of 500 microns, and the product has 50% volume solids, then once dry, the DFT (dry film thickness) reading will be 250 microns. Some coatings are 100% volume solids, which means no thickness is lost between WFT and DFT.
