E-Coat Process

Enviro-Strip GB Ltd.’s auto restoration customers now have the added option of adding a long term rust protection coating to their body-shells electrophoretic or ‘e-coating’ as it’s more commonly known.

E-coating is applied to the vast majority of the new cars produced today throughout the world and is specifically designed to provide protection against mild steel corrosion. E-coating, involves fully immersing the body-shell in a range of cleaning and phosphating solutions before passing into an electrically charged tank, once submerged a current of around 400 Volts is passed through the tank causing the paint to uniformly bond to all areas of the shell.

The process is best carried out once all welding / repair work has been completed on the body-shell & will help in give classic car owners many more years to enjoying their pride & joy.

Pre treatment & E coat process

Working Envelope: 7.6m(l) x 1.8m(w) x 2.7m(d) at 2 tonnes

Stage Description

Stage 1: R-Clean 705

R-Etch 601 is a Acid etch submersion bath designed to clean any light oils and grease of the 

work piece and chemically remove surface rust and laser oxide. 

Stage 2: Towns Water Rinse

Stage 2 is a submersion tank to remove any chemical that may have been retained on the 

surface of the work piece.

Stage 2A: Towns Water Halo Spray

Stage 2A is a spray stage to ensure that the carry over of any chemical is kept to a minimum.

Stage 3: Activator CT

Activator CT is a conditioning bath to chemically prepare the surface of the work piece for 

the Tri-Cation Phosphate bath.

Stage 4: R-Phos 401

R-Phos 401 is a Tri-Cation (Tri-Cat) phosphate which applies a corrosion protective coating to

the work piece that restricts any corrosion from spreading or creeping under the paint.  

Stage 5 and 6: Towns Water Rinse

Stage 5 and 6 are submersion baths to remove any chemical that may have been retained 

on the surface of the work piece.

Stage 7: De-Ionised Rinse

Stage 7 is a De-Ionised water submersion tank that remove any heavy metals that may be present on the work piece from the towns water. Stage 7 is also fitted with a halo spray to help with the removal of the heavy metals prior to the painting stage.

Stage 8: Aqua EC3000

Aqua EC3000 is a cathodic electrophoretic paint (E-Coat) from Axalta the work piece is submersed in the bath and connected to the negative side of a electric circuit the paint particles are slowly positively charged using a rectifier. The positive charged paint particles build up on the negative work peace till it reaches a thickness that it becomes nonconductive to the pre set volts. This ensures an even film build thickness over the whole surface of the work piece that is controllable by the amount of volts put in to the paint partials.

Stage 9: Ultra Filtrate (UF) Rinse

Stage 9 is a submersion bath, Ultra Filtrate is filtered from the E-Coat bath and pumped to 

the UF bath which overflows back to the E-Coat bath. The continuous overflow of the UF 

bath means that any unbounded E-Coat that was carried over is return to the E-Coat bath.

Stage 9A: De-Ionised Water Halo

Stage 9A is a halo spray ring above the UF bath it operates when work is going in and out of 

the bath and is used to ensure all unbounded E-Coat is washed of the work piece.

Stage 10: Gas Fired Cure Oven

Stage 10 is a well oven design and cures the work piece for 40 minutes with a air 

temperature of 200 degrees. The cure interlocks the paint particles and hardens the 

Coating a process known as Cross linking.