Surface Treatment & Coating: a buyer's sourcing guide
Everything a procurement team should know before opening an RFQ for surface treatment & coating: materials, tolerances, certifications and red flags.
Recent RFQs in surface treatment & coating
Overview
Surface treatments protect against corrosion, wear and UV and tune cosmetics. Common processes: zinc & zinc-nickel plating, hot-dip galvanising, anodising (alu), powder coating, e-coating (KTL), hard chrome and DLC.
When to choose this process
Always specify the surface treatment in the RFQ: it can swing the piece price by 10–40% and decide which suppliers are even relevant.
Typical materials
- Carbon steel
- Stainless
- Aluminium
- Zamak/zinc die-cast
Typical tolerances
Coating thickness 5–120 μm depending on process; mind tolerance loss on plated parts.
Certifications to ask for
- Qualicoat (powder)
- Qualanod (anodising)
- ISO 1461 (galvanising)
- Cradle to Cradle for green specs
Frequently asked questions
Powder coating or wet paint?
Powder = better corrosion and abrasion, mono-component, lower VOC. Wet paint = better cosmetic on huge structures or where touch-up is needed.
Salt-spray hours, what should I ask?
Standard zinc 96 h, zinc-nickel 720 h, galvanised + powder >1000 h. Always cite the test (ISO 9227 NSS) in the spec.
Sourcing countries covered
Editorial market guide. Supplyria is a marketplace; we don't list private suppliers on this page. Cost ranges and lead times are indicative and based on public industry benchmarks.