Powder Coating Coverage Formula

Now that you have all the data you need, you can apply the powder coating coverage
formula.

Assumption: The Powder Coating Industry standard is 192.3 square feet of coverage
per pound of powder. This pound of powder would be at 1.0 specific gravity and applied
at a thickness of 1 mil with 100% transfer efficiency. In other words, this is how much
surface a common powder could cover if no powder was wasted and you only needed a
thickness of 1/1000th of an inch.

So the formula would be:

Actual Coverage Rate (ACR) = 192.3/Specific Gravity/Mils x Transfer Efficiency (as a decimal)

Example: Powder A has a 1.5 specific gravity and is being sprayed at 2 mils with 50% transfer
efficiency. The powder cost is $5.00 per pound. The part being sprayed has 3 square feet of
surface area.

ACR = 192.3/1.5 (specific gravity)/2 (mil thickness) x .50 (transfer efficiency)

ACR = 32.05 square feet per pound of Powder A

Next, take your cost per pound and divide it by your ACR.

Cost per square foot = $5.00 (cost of one pound of powder)/32.05(ACR) = cost is $0.16 per square
foot of coverage by Powder A

Multiply this cost by the square footage of your part’s surface area and you’ll know the
cost of the applied powder.

Cost Per Part = 3 (square feet of part) x $0.16 (cost per square foot) = $0.48 per part in powder cost