Activa keeps cool with help from Dowding & Mills

Dowding & Mills recently put its years of surface technology knowledge into action for Activa Technology whose wind tunnel belt kept jamming due to frictional over heating.

Activa Technology was spending a fortune on expensive man-made belts in the tunnel as the cheaper ‘industry standard’ belts would stick after just 15 minutes. After an hour of operation a temperature rise of 60 degrees was recorded expanding the metals and rendering any tests invalid.

An expert in surface technology, Dowding & Mills offers a wide range of surface coatings, and was therefore the obvious choice for Activa Technology. The range, which can meet almost any requirements, includes electro–plating, metal or ceramic spraying, and special polymer coatings. In this instance Molybdenum was selected for use.

Dowding & Mills engineer, Duncan Purt explained: "The three plates in the base of the wind tunnel were coated with a thermal spray, Bescote 1301, and when coupled with water cooling the frictional resistance was significantly reduced. Standard belts can now be used and experience only a two degree rise after a full day in operation. This means that continuous use is now possible for Activa Technology.

"Another bonus of the Molybdenum spray is that it is much harder wearing than aluminium and thus the wear on the plates is greatly reduced.”

Experienced Dowding & Mills engineers carefully assess any job before work begins to recommend the most appropriate BESCOTE system. The method and consumables used will depend on a number of factors such as: job size, substrate material and configuration, depth of deposit, expected service conditions, life cycle and cost. The operating environment and possibility of corrosion will also be considered. In many cases coatings can be used to improve the life and performance of new components.