Can painting (coating) on ABS surface resist tumbling?

No chance...

The whole point with plastics is to pigment the plastic when it is molded.

I'd say any surface finish will come off as the plastic flexex or if it doesn't it will abrade through.... Save your time and money. Either live with existing colour, get it molded in the colour you want or ..if the marketinging guys insist on pretty colours accept that it will wear off and look tatty..does it effect fit form or function...probably not.

There I am dragging my luggage through the airport

'Oh no my silver wheelhousing has scuffed and grey showing through...that's my holiday ruined... '

Quite.

The type of paint and lacquer is critical.

Generally the most durable is the acrylic based paints and lacquers.

The final lacquer coat should have minimum 3 coats.

Otherwise, what Del the cat said is the best answer..have the ABS pigmented during manufacture.

Dear All, thanks a lot for your reply.

Yes, it was not a problem with function or fit form. Just that we are only OEM, while the owner of the bag's brand do not want to tolerate this kind of wear off.

The ABS part weighs about 90grs, and I estimate the area currently to be painted as much as about 276cm² or 42.8in². Del, could you pls give a rough idea how much the price would increase if we mold colored ABS instead of painting (percentage)? The color has a metalic look (something between aluminum and silver), I'm afraid it's not easy to make either.

Techno, I will try to get more details on paint and lacquer to see if we can get 3 coats from supplier.

Again, thanks.

Nam

Virtually zero percent price increase....

as long as you are having a big run of the parts molded and can buy a reasonable quantity of the plastic. (it comes in sacks of pre coloured pellets)

Some colours are more expensive than others.... but ABS (I think you said ABS?) is available in sooooo many colours as it is widely used where colour and finish is important.

The real cost is in machine downtime when changing from one colour to the next...

Talk to your molders..... maybe they run it in other colours already? Maybe no one else cares about colour and they could all use your colour.

NO!

If you can't get an exact match for the colour needed, then choose the closest, so that wear is less noticeable. There's nothing worse than a silver finish showing black beneath, when the plastic could have been a close shade of grey.

My suggestion of solution is coating on ABS caster.

Chrome plating is more stander than painting.

If Aluminum or some other metallic finish is what you need, check into 'vacuum metalizing' over a silvery base colored ABS - there are a number of color houses who sell a standard "aluminum" color package for ABS -

note when coloring ABS if color matches are "Critical" you will need to work with your ABS supplier to make sure that the natural base material stays within a fairly close ranges as well -

good luck

Before you change to some other method of coloring the casters, try top coating with a good water base polyurethane. Just use a clear coat over your present caster.