F-Series, PFAS, and how changing government regulations will affect manufacturing.

The problem-  One of our manufacturing customers with a sizable worldwide presence came to us with some interesting news.  The European Union is changing regulations in an effort to reduce the usage of PFAS substances used in products that are offered for sale in Europe.  Their distributors in the EU were going to drop their products starting in 2026 if any of their products still contained PFAS substances.  Europe represents a huge portion of their revenue and they were in need of a coating that would meet the EU’s new regulations.  Legislation including REACH, the POPs Regulation, and the Cosmetic Products Regulation are fast approaching leaving manufacturers scrambling for new alternative materials to use on their products.

What is PFAS and why should I care?- PFAS, or Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a large class of thousands of synthetic chemicals that are used in products throughout society, all over the globe.  Often called “forever chemicals” and “microplastics”, PFAS substances have been shown to negatively impact our environment and our health.  We all encounter these chemicals in lots of products we use every day and studies have shown these chemicals to disrupt our endocrine system, immune system, and even cause cancer.  Nasty stuff to say the least.  Governments all over the world are starting to strictly regulate the use of these substances.  These chemicals have been widely used for decades because of their water repellant, nonstick, and chemically resistant properties, but with government regulations approaching, many manufacturers will be scrambling to find suitable alternatives if they wish to keep their products available in PFAS regulated markets. PFAS chemicals have been widely used for decades and are present in just about every industrial coating on the market today meaning there will be a lot of manufacturing facilities looking for PFAS free solutions for their products in the near future.  

The PFAS free solution; Enter Cerakote F-series- Our good friends over at Cerakote recently released their newest offering: F-series.  F-series is a two part, oven cured, thin film ceramic coating that offers the same or better levels of heat protection, durability, corrosion resistance, and chemical resistance as the PFAS loaded alternatives. F-series offers a lot of the same great properties that makes Cerakote outperform it's competition, thin-film application, industry leading hardness, durability, and scratch ratings, large color selection, etc., with a couple of differences that stand out:

1- F- Series is completely PFAS free.  With new governmental regulations being set forth, we already have a fantastic PFAS free system that is readily available to replace those PFAS loaded industrial coatings that can be put into service right away with minimal effort.

2- F- Series is production friendly with its 15 minute full cure time, making it not only friendly to the environment by being PFAS free, but making it friendly for the shop owners like me applying these coatings.  The ovens don't run as long so that translates to lower operational costs and faster turnaround times for the customer.

To top it all off, many of the F-series colors are laser friendly.  You can use a combination of laser ablation and laser imaging to further customize your products.

Here at our shop, we are very excited about the introduction of F-series and we already have production customers who are ecstatic with the results and are working on switching their production to F-series.  F-Series is the ideal alternative for anyone seeking a high performing, PFAS free coating for use on their products. 

If you would like some more info on F-series or you would like us to run some samples on your products, please give me a call or shoot me an email.  I would love to talk and help you work through your coating problems.  Please check out the video below on F-series from our friends over at Cerakote.

Thanks for being here,

Zac Harward

800-556-9498, EX 201

zac@wwcoatingsllc.com