Wabash Outdoor Furniture Powder-coating Process



The Urbanscape line by Wabash Valley consists of outdoor furniture that is powder-coated for durability. This finish is available in a wide range of long-lasting colors, making the furniture attractive and customizable to match decor. Wabash uses a special six-step process to ensure the coating is firmly bonded to the metal and enhance the coating's protective qualities.

Six-step Process

Each of the six steps in the powder-coating process used on Urbanscape by Wabash Valley models helps ensure the durability of the furniture. That enables the coating to withstand various weather and environmental conditions, so you can be sure your outdoor restaurant furniture will retain its beauty for years to come.

  1. Shot-blasting: This first step is preparing the metal, removing impurities in a manner that also roughs up the surface for better coating adhesion. While the traditional cleaning process uses acid, shot blasting is more effective, especially with Wabash's state-of-the-art system. This step involves shooting small abrasives at the metal using high-pressure air.
  2. Chemical Pre-treatment: After the metal has been prepared, it goes through a five-step chemical cleaning process. The steps include etching, cleaning, and rinsing. The metal is also sealed as a part of this process to help prevent corrosion.
  3. Epoxy Coating: This first layer is an epoxy-based, zinc-rich powder coat that provides additional corrosion prevention. This step is skipped on aluminum products because of aluminum's rust-resistant nature, but on other metals it acts as a primer to help protect against rust.
  4. Gel Cure: That layer of zinc-rich epoxy is cured to form a gel in this step. This step prepares the epoxy for the polyester topcoat in the next step, and ensures the layers will adhere well to each other. Because aluminum products don't receive the zinc coating, this step is also omitted for those products.
  5. Polyester Topcoat: This polyester topcoat is AAMA 2604-05 compliant, meaning it meets the standards set by the American Architectural Manufacturers Association for damage resistance. The topcoat retains its gloss and resists fading, cracking, chalking, eroding, and chemical damage.
  6. Final Cure: Going through the cure oven hardens the polyester topcoat and strengthens the bond between this coat and the zinc epoxy underneath it.

Testing Requirements

Once this six-step process is completed, Urbanscape commercial outdoor furniture is in compliance with AAMA 2604-05, a testing process that ensures long-term durability under extreme weather circumstances. The testing requires 3,000 hours of salt spray resistance and chemical resistance, as well as five years of color retention, chalk resistance, gloss retention, and erosion resistance, all under the intensity of the South Florida sun. Since this line of Wabash outdoor furniture is in compliance with all of these test requirements, it should last for years in any outdoor location.