Coatings Offer Protection

Whether it’s time to buy a new vehicle or just update the look of one already in their fleet, many people in the service truck industry are looking for something with more than just a fresh coat of paint.

Increasingly, service bodies are getting outfitted with a high-tech protective coating that can help guard against weather and heavy use. Unlike paint, it won’t chip or peel — and it can provide practical help, like ensuring you won’t slip while you’re rooting around for tools the truck.

“Not only in service trucks but in general, we see that paint is not preferred much anywhere in the high-wear service environment,” said Terry Pe, vice-president for protective coatings at Line-X LLC, a Huntsville, Ala., company that specializes in protective coating products. “Paint just doesn’t last, because it’s very thin and very brittle  … Paint is going out the door and we’re coming in.”

Pe, a chemist by trade, has been working on protective coatings for Line-X for a decade. He’s a big believer in the long-term payoff of protective coatings, a mess

age he shared in a presentation at this year’s Work Truck Show in Indianapolis.

Materials refined in recent years

The technology behind protective coatings has been around for decades, in different forms. But in recent years, chemists have been able to refine the materials that go into coatings to perfect them for industry use.

Formulas for rougher, stickier coatings can be sprayed on to create a non-slip surface for a truck bed. Tougher coatings are engineered to weather rocks and sand on the underside of a truck body.

Several companies, including Line-X, Scorpion Coatings, Arma Coatings and Rhino Linings, now offer a variety of coating products. Some working on advances for work trucks have also developed products for far-flung uses; Line-X produces chemicals that go into shoes, bowling balls and pool filters, among other products.

Products meant for service trucks are developed with utility in mind, Pe said. His company’s coatings for service bodies are designed so that they can be sprayed on and dry quickly, so the truck isn’t out of commission for long.

The material sprayed on to the truck turns from liquid to solid in just six seconds, he said.

“The faster the service truck can get back into service, the less downtime and the better for the economics,” Pe said.

Trucks that have been sprayed with a protective coating don’t look much different from those with regular paint, at least at first glance. Get up close, and you can identify protective coatings by one big giveaway: the coating is much thicker than regular paint. Pe said paint thickness is usually three or four mils (a thousandth of an inch) while protective coatings are sprayed on at 120 mils.

More refined versions of coatings are now being produced for cars, so it’s only a matter of time before your sedan or SUV comes coated in something tougher than paint, Pe said.

“We’re working with various automotive makers on what we can to do give

them a solution for things like the interior of a car, or the trunk of a car, or underneath the car, for corrosion,” he said.

Standing up to stains

Pe noted that many automakers are already recognizing the benefits of the chemicals that go into protective coatings. Some high-end vehicles already come with seats made from polyurethane, rather than leather, because they stand up better to stains and regular use.

Protective coatings are not yet the standard for all new service bodies, but the growing popularity of the products is shifting the trend in that direction.

Sondra Kirby, a part sales manager for Summit Truck Bodies in Wathena, Kansas, said her company has been producing all of its truck bodies with Line-X protective coatings since it opened in 2005.

She said most of her customers are interested in protecting several aspects of their trucks, from the bumper to the truck bed and under the body.

“With our industry and our market, most customers bring their service trucks to mines, oil fields, construction sites,” she said. “(A protective coating) increases the life span of our service bodies.”

Kirby said the average lifespan of Summit’s bodies are about 14 years — often outlasting the chassis they are mounted on. Summit also offers the option of protective coatings instead of paint for smaller parts, and she said many customers opt for the coatings – even though the upfront cost is higher.

“The Line-X is a little more expensive, but because it extends the lifespan, it’s worth it,” she said.

The growing demand for the products is creating more competition. Line-X is the biggest player in the market, with 550 U.S. franchises and a presence in 72 countries. But Pe said smaller operations are finding room to grow, too.

“There is healthy competition out there, and we’re continuing to grow as well,” he said.

No matter how advanced the technology gets, though, Pe said it’s important to remember that a protective coating is only as good as its application. He said a number of questions he fielded at the Work Truck show focused on how to prepare surfaces for the coatings to ensure they’ll bond properly to aluminum or steel.

“We’re only as good as we stick,” he said.

Erin Golden is a writer based in Minnesota.