Cardinal Powder Coating: Codes, Chemistries and Color Ordering

We coat with Cardinal powders and work from their product codes and technical data sheets (TDS). This guide is for the engineer or buyer who has to put a powder on a drawing: what the codes mean, which chemistries belong outdoors, where cure schedules come from and how to order stock and custom colors.

To see the colors we spray, visit our Cardinal powder colors page.

Who Cardinal is

The company was founded in 1952 as Cardinal Industrial Finishes and now operates as Cardinal Paint and Powder, Inc. It makes both liquid paint and powder, and you may see either name on a drawing or spec.

Cardinal’s color card notes that “a large part of our business is custom formulation of powder and liquid coatings to specific criteria.” That gives you three options: a stock color, a small custom batch, or a fully custom formulation.

How to read a Cardinal product code

A Cardinal powder code has two halves. Take T009-GR230, Cardinal’s RAL 7035 light gray:

• T009 is the product. The first letter is the resin system and the digits identify the formulation.
• GR230 is the color. The letters track the color family and the number identifies the specific color.

The first letter: resin system

Per Cardinal’s color card:

Cardinal’s rule is short: “Exterior powders start with a T, C or P,” and “H and E powders are not suitable as exterior topcoats if you need color and gloss stability.”

The color half

On the color card, the letters after the dash follow the color family: BK on blacks, WH on whites, GR on grays, BL on blues, GN on greens, RD on reds, YL on yellows, OG on oranges, BR on browns and bronzes, BG on beiges and CL on clears. Some RAL superdurables carry the RAL number instead, such as T909-RAL9005.

What the digits do not tell you

On the stock card, the last digit of the product number usually tracks 60° gloss: T001-BK120 is a 10 gloss black, T005-BK78 a 50 gloss black, and T009 products are 90 gloss. Cardinal only publishes the meaning of the first letter, so treat this as a pattern and confirm gloss, texture and superdurable status on the color card and TDS.

The color half is not shared across chemistries, either. The C909-WH485 data sheet describes its color as “Color of T009-WH11”: the same white in a different resin, with a different code. Always specify the full code, not just “Cardinal white.”

The asterisks on the card

• One asterisk (*): a metallic. Cardinal recommends a clear topcoat outdoors, because weathering affects the metal flakes.
• Two asterisks (**): suggested as a topcoat for interior products only. Every E and H product on the card carries this mark.
• Cardinal flags some specialty metallics as formulated for exterior use without a clear coat.

Choosing a chemistry by environment

Why epoxy and hybrid stay indoors

Epoxy resists chemicals and corrosion well, which makes it a good primer, but it chalks in sunlight. Products Finishing warns that any epoxy content in a topcoat “will cause the finish to chalk and degrade in less than a couple months of exposure to sunlight.” Hybrids share that weakness. A part that lives on a trailer or outside a building is an exterior part.

Standard polyester vs superdurable

Per the same Products Finishing article, standard industrial polyester powders typically hold color and gloss for about 12 to 18 months of South Florida exposure, and after two years show significant color fade and 50% or more gloss loss. High-performance (superdurable-class) powders are expected to last up to about five years of South Florida exposure before visible degradation. Weathering fades color, causes chalking and, over time, wears down the film’s barrier properties. Cardinal says its superdurables “out-perform their standard counterparts by up to five times.” If appearance or long outdoor life matters, specify a superdurable.

Primer plus topcoat

Cardinal’s E396-GR1372 zinc-rich epoxy primer lists 4,000+ hours of ASTM B117 salt spray with under 1/8 in. of creep from the scribe. That is a lab result on 24-gauge iron-phosphated panels, not a prediction for your part. The TDS limits it to steel and galvanized steel. It also calls for a partial cure: heat the primer “only long enough to allow the coating to flow and form a continuous glossy film,” then apply and cure the topcoat. Two coats mean two passes through the booth and oven, which adds price and lead time. Our guide on powder coating galvanized steel and castings covers pre-baking and primers for those parts.

Cure schedules: read the TDS, not the oven dial

Every Cardinal TDS lists a cure schedule as time at metal temperature. The clock starts when the part itself reaches temperature, not when it enters the oven, so a heavy weldment takes much longer than a thin bracket.

From the Cardinal data sheets (each code links to its TDS):

Other TDS details:

• Overbake causes slight yellowing, “especially in white and pastel colors.” That matters on second passes.
• Galvanized steel “must be degassed at 5 degrees above cure temperature.”
• Revision dates: the E396 sheet is dated 2009 and the C909 sheet 2013. Ask for the current revision before a performance number goes into your spec.

Stock colors vs custom: Cardinal Xpress

Stock colors are kept in Cardinal’s warehouses in 5, 25 and 50 lb boxes (5, 20 and 40 lb for lower-density products; 25 lb for popular RAL superdurables). A stock color is the fastest choice.

Cardinal Xpress is Cardinal’s small-batch custom service. Per the color card:

• Custom powders are made in 50 lb batches.
• They use exterior-durable TGIC polyester formulas (the X-series).
• Gloss runs from full gloss down to 10, and fine texture comes in two gloss levels.
• Most RAL, Federal Standard and designer colors can be matched in 50 to 200 lb quantities.

What this means for a buyer:

• A short run in a non-stock color can carry the cost of a full batch. If 200 brackets need 15 lb of powder, you are still buying 50 lb. Our guide to powder coating cost factors covers this and other price drivers.
• Custom adds lead time to our standard week or so. We tell you how much when we quote.
• Xpress is TGIC polyester. For a custom color in another chemistry, such as TGIC-free or polyurethane, or for superdurable performance, ask Cardinal; it may need a custom formulation rather than an Xpress batch.
• Fix the code on repeat programs. Put the custom powder’s product code on the drawing so every release uses it.

For Federal Standard colors, Cardinal stocks some military colors in low-gloss, exterior-durable formulas. Our AMS-STD-595 color guide explains how to read those numbers. A powder matched to a Federal Standard color is a color match, not a CARC system.

Samples, color approval and tolerance

Approve color on a sprayed panel, not a screen or a PDF. Ask for a physical sample of the exact product code, sprayed at production film build, and keep an approved panel as the master for the program.

Agree on how color will be judged before production.

• Variations in coating thickness cause color and effect differences, and on metallics all application parameters affect flake orientation (TIGER Coatings). TIGER also recommends upper and lower tolerance samples, particularly when reclaimed powder is in the mix.
• If you measure with an instrument, elliptical tolerances (CMC, CIEDE2000) agree with visual judgment far better than rectangular L*a*b* box tolerances: about 98% agreement for DE2000 vs about 75% for a box (PCI Magazine). Check colors near the tolerance edge visually.
• Set the numeric limit inside the color difference of the closest sample you would reject.

Mating parts. If two coated parts sit side by side on an assembly, note it on the PO so we can coat them in the same run.

Touch-up and mixed assemblies. Cardinal offers aerosol touch-up for most stock colors, though most multicolor powders have no touch-up match. For heat-sensitive components that cannot take a powder cure, Cardinal suggests a liquid polyurethane, which can be matched to the powder.

Cardinal’s Denver branch

Cardinal’s Colorado branch is at 1195 East 64th Avenue, Denver, CO 80229, (303) 286-1876. Contact it for samples, current data sheets or a technical representative when a part has an unusual environment, substrate or color requirement.

What to put on the drawing or PO

A complete Cardinal callout leaves little to interpret:

1. Full product code and name, for example “Cardinal T009-GR230, RAL 7035 light gray, 90 gloss smooth.”
2. Primer, if any, by product code (for example, E396-GR1372 zinc-rich).
3. Film build range, in mils.
4. Color standard: the approved master panel, and how color will be checked.
5. Masking and no-coat areas, threads, and grounding or contact points.
6. Environment: where the part lives, so a chemistry mismatch gets caught.

Our coating callout checklist covers the rest of a callout. Send us the drawing for a quote with the Cardinal code, or the color and environment if you don’t have one.