Two coating processes, one company, for equipment that gets dropped, sweated on, and wiped down daily
Fitness equipment takes drops, sweat, and a sanitizer wipe several times a day. Great Dane coats racks, benches, frames, and weight plates with powder coating, electrocoating, or both. We work with the manufacturers who build this equipment and with the facilities that maintain it. Tell us your volumes and colors.
What athletic and fitness equipment does Great Dane coat?
Great Dane coats the equipment that fills a weight room, a gym floor, and a stadium. Common jobs include weight racks, squat racks, power cages, and storage trees. We also coat bench frames, machine frames, guards, handles, and pulley housings. Free weight work includes plates, dumbbell handles, and kettlebells. On the facility side, we coat bleacher framing, stadium seating components, goal posts, backstops, and railings. We coat steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and alloy steels. This page is written first for the manufacturers who build this equipment. Volumes run from a first production lot to repeat scheduled releases. We also take refinishing work from gyms, clubs, and facilities that already own their equipment. If you are a school district refinishing equipment you own, our Education page covers that side. Because we run powder coating and electrocoating in two dedicated plants, we can match the process to the part. Send a part list and we will tell you what fits.
How do powder coating and e-coating protect athletic equipment?
Fitness equipment gets treated harder than almost anything else we coat. Plates and dumbbells get dropped on concrete. Racks get loaded, scraped, and struck with steel bars. Powder coating applies a charged dry powder that heat cures into a hard film. That film resists chipping, scratching, abrasion, and impact far better than liquid paint. That is why it became the standard finish on this equipment. Sweat is the quieter problem. It is salty and slightly acidic, and it finds every seam. Electrocoating works differently. Our e-coat system runs an eight-stage zinc phosphate pretreatment, then the electrocoat application. Racked parts enter a charged bath of Axalta AquaEC 6000 series coating. An automatic voltage control system delivers uniform film thickness regardless of the square footage being coated. The film reaches inside tubing, weld joints, and folded edges. Most fitness equipment is welded tube, and that is where rust starts, out of sight. A chip also exposes bare metal, which rusts and leaves a rough edge.
Will the finish survive daily sanitizer wipe-downs?
Here is a question most coating pages skip. Gym equipment gets wiped with a disinfectant several times a day, every day, for years. Quaternary sanitizers, alcohol wipes, and peroxide cleaners all work on a coating over time. Some finishes chalk, dull, or soften under that routine. Powder chemistries differ in how they respond, and no single one leads in every category. So tell us what your facilities use, or what you expect your customers to use. With that, we can recommend a powder and a film build suited to the exposure. A smooth, hard, continuous surface is the practical goal. It wipes down fast and gives soil fewer places to sit. We will not tell you a coating kills bacteria, because cleaning does that. What a good finish does is stay smooth and intact through years of cleaning. Higher gloss sheds soil more easily and shows dirt sooner, which some operators prefer.
When is a dual-layer finish the right choice for athletic equipment?
Some athletic equipment needs more protection than either process gives alone. For those parts, Great Dane applies a dual-layer finish. We start with an e-coat primer that covers the whole part evenly. Then we add a powder topcoat for hardness, color, and impact resistance. The e-coat guards the metal from the inside out. The powder guards the surface from the outside in. Together they outlast either coating by itself. In this industry, that pairing suits equipment near a pool, in a coastal facility, or in a humid room with poor ventilation. It suits outdoor fitness stations, park equipment, and stadium steel. It also suits welded tube frames generally, because sweat and water get inside the tube and a spray gun does not. Most coating shops offer one process, so a dual-layer job means two vendors and two shipments. Great Dane runs both, so the part never leaves our control. Learn more on our E-Coating and Dual-Layer Coating pages.
What color, finish, and branding options are available?
Color carries the brand on this equipment. A gym chain, a franchise program, and an equipment line each run their own palette, and the match usually has to be right. We work from stock colors when speed matters, and from special order colors when the match has to be exact. Send us a color number, a paint code, a sample panel, or a piece of existing equipment. We also offer a range of gloss levels and textured finishes. Matte and textured finishes hide fingerprints and light scuffs better than high gloss, which matters on uprights and handles. Two-tone work is done with masking. We mask the areas that stay one color, coat the part, then repeat for the second color. That takes planning, so raise it at quoting rather than after the first lot runs. If your program calls for logos or applied graphics, tell us what you have in mind. We will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do in house.
How does Great Dane handle high-volume equipment production?
Equipment programs run on releases, not on one-time orders. A line launches, a franchise rolls out, and the coating cannot become the constraint. Great Dane runs a 5-day standard turnaround on most work. When a job needs to move faster, we can often accommodate it. Ask us early and we will tell you honestly what is possible. Capacity is part of the answer. Our 18,000 square foot powder coating plant and 6,000 square foot e-coating plant handle production volume. We take blanket orders with scheduled releases and one-time lots through the same process. Consistency is the other part. Our rework rate stays below 1%. Color has to hold across a run, because two racks side by side in slightly different shades is a problem your customer will see immediately. We also handle sandblasting, pretreatment, masking, labeling, and line-ready packaging. Light assembly is available as well. One point of contact stays with your program from quote through delivery.
Are these coatings environmentally responsible?
Both of our processes are cleaner than traditional liquid paint. Powder coating uses no solvents and emits negligible volatile organic compounds. Overspray is collected and reused, so material waste stays low. Electrocoating uses a water-based bath and recovers excess material in the rinse stages. Neither process creates the solvent waste stream that spray painting does. There is a second, quieter benefit as well. A rack that still looks right after ten years does not get replaced. Fewer replacements mean less steel, less freight, and less scrap across the life of a facility. Refinishing goes further in the same direction. Stripping and recoating a rack costs less than buying a new one, and it keeps usable steel in service instead of in a dumpster. That argument lands with operators watching a capital budget, and it happens to be true. If your company reports on sustainability, tell us what documentation you need.
Why choose Great Dane for athletic equipment coating?
Great Dane has coated industrial parts for manufacturers since its 1991. Owner and General Manager Gary Lamolinara has led the company from the very beginning. We offer powder coating and electrocoating from one company, in two dedicated plants. Most competitors offer one process or the other. Offering both means we recommend the process that fits your part, not the process we happen to run. Quality here is built in upfront rather than caught at final inspection. Plant Manager Colton Adams drove our rework rate from about 3% down below 1%. Quality Manager Kendrick Bolish oversees the systems that hold it there. On equipment that carries a brand, consistency is most of the job. We coat heavy industrial parts for clients including Caterpillar, Manitowoc Cranes, and Spartan Motors. The same process control goes into a weight rack. We serve manufacturers throughout the eastern United States and across the eastern seaboard from Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Ready to coat your next equipment run?
Send us your part list, volumes, colors, and release schedule. Tell us what disinfectants the equipment will see in service. We will recommend powder coating, e-coating, or a dual-layer finish, then quote it. Call 724-537-9709 or request a quote today. We deliver on time and on budget, with no hidden fees.
You can learn more about the markets we provide coating services for on our Industries Served page, and our page on Education describes our services to schools.