Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/R82685/01
Title:	External powder coating of cans (EpoCan)
Principal Investigator:	Pham, Professor D
Other Investigators:	Dimov, Professor SS
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Dupont Ercon Group Limited Sericol Group Ltd TG Engineering USC Europe UK Ltd
Department:	Sch of Engineering
Organisation:	Cardiff University
Scheme:	LINK
Starts:	01 June 2002	Ends:	31 May 2005	Value (£):	236,211
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Energy Efficiency Manufacturing Machine & Plant Materials Processing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Manufacturing Chemicals
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The project aims to minimise the environmental and health and safety impacts of externally decorating 3-piece tinplate aerosol containers. Currently this process involves the exposure to workers and the environment to hazardous substances (solvents), the production of significant waste products, including coatings and cleaning products (solvents), decoration raw materials and tinplate scrap, as well as significant energy usage. These issues are to be addressed by development of equipment design, materials and methodologies that enable a 3-piece tinplate aerosol container to be externally powder coated and to be produced and sold commercially. Such powder coating requires no solvents, has high (98%) material utilisation, allows much reduced material scrap, and necessitates smaller curing ovens and hence reduced energy usage. By means of a collaborative research / commercial development between USC Europe UK, Cardiff University and four key supplier organisations, DuPont (powder technologies), Ercon (powder coating equipment0, Sericol (printing ink and equipment suppliers), and TG Engineering (precision engineering), the project aims effectively to address the issues involved in proving the validity of the chosen method. The project outputs will be available both to the project partners as well as more generally within the industrial sector. It is anticipated that the technologies developed could be used commercially within two years of the end of the project.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher
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Project URL:
Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.cf.ac.uk