What would you do if you lost your shoes at the Korean restaurant in Korea?

In South Korea, there are many Korean style restaurants where you should leave your shoes by the door area to go to a table for food and service.

Usually the system is not a problem but when there are crowded, some bad incidents are happened.

What is the events? LOSING SHOES.

It happened barely. When bad luck hits you, it can be you and your shoes can be disappeared without any clue.

What if your shoes are disappeared at that kind of Korean restaurant?

What will you do? What should you do?

Maybe the owner of the restaurant can say that he has no responsibility for your shoes. Or  there can be the board on the door or on the wall near the counter that says 'Keep your shoes by yourself to prevent loss and stolen'.

And possibly if the owner is kind and you are lucky enough, he will provide you a pair of slipper(slip-on shoes) for free so you can leave the restaurant.

Do you think the slipper is the best happy ending you can have?

I don't think so.

In Korea, there are laws to protect consumers. In this kind of case, there is Commercial Act about hospitality business.

The hospitality business is in the business of making transactions by theaters, hotels, restaurants, or other facilities used by the public. And anyone who engages in this business is called a hospitality service provider.

The Commercial Act regulates the liability of hospitality service providers.

Commercial Act Article 152 (Liability of Hospitality Service Providers)
(1) Unless a hospitality service provider proves that he/she has not been negligent in giving due care in the custody of articles deposited from his/her guests to him/her or his/her employee, the hospitality service provider shall be liable for damage resulting from the loss of or damage to the articles kept in his/her custody.
(2) A hospitality service provider shall be liable for damage for the loss of or damage to portable goods brought into his/her establishments, even if not particularly deposited by the guest, when it is due to the lack of due care of the business entity or any of his/her employees.
(3) No hospitality service provider shall be exonerated from liability under paragraphs (1) and (2), even if he/she has informed that he/she is not liable for the loss of or damage to the portable goods of guests.

Yes, it says the hospitality service providers shall be liable for the loss of or damage to the articles kept in his/her custody.

So when you take off your shoes and put them at the door and go to a table, it is thought that you and the owner of the restaurant make a contract containing that the owner keeps your belongs(shoes).

Even though the owner notices to the customers that no responsibility for loss and stolen, the owner's liability is not waived.

Now you know your right, and you can say to the owner like that

"Please, take your responsibility that is gave by Commercial Act Article 152. And give me back my shoes or show me the money!"

Of course, there is the statute of limitation for period for the liability. The period is 6 months.

Which means you should act for your right in 6 month after the incident.

And this law can be applied on car damage/stolen at parking lot where the owner controls.

Surface Preparations For Powder Coating

Surface preparation is one of the most important factors in powder coatings as well as liquid coatings and almost all coatings.

Surface preparation is often expressed as surface pretreatment or surface treatment.

Surface pretreatment for painting can be approached in two main ways.

1. Surface cleanliness

When we think about the surface preparation, there is a famous well-known standard for it. It is ISO 8501(Preparation of steel substrates before application of paints and related products - Visual assessment of surface cleanliness).

And its title said 'surface cleanliness'. Because this is an important factor in surface preparation, and most surface preparation methods are used to make the surface clean.

2. Improving Adhesion

In the painting preparation process, the surface pre-treatment through the cleaning or post-cleaning process usually involves a process to increase the adhesion between the coating and the substrate. One way to increase adhesion is to increase the surface area physically and chemically, such as by shot/grit blasting or conversion coating.

Anyway, surface treatment for painting determines about 60-80% of the paint quality.

Spray type process line of Surface Preparation

Let's take a look at surface pretreatment methods that are mainly used in powder coating.

1. Shot/Grit Blasting

Abrasive blasting is a more appropriate and broad term, but in the field, sandblasting and shot blasting are also used.

Short or grit is a term that describes the form of media used for blasting.

Sandblasting use sand to blast, so it is called sandblasting.

Abrasive blasting is an effective method that has been used for a long time.

The media particles are collided with the surface of the material by using air pressure or centrifugal force to remove rust or foreign substances on the surface. And a profile is formed on the surface due to the collision, which increases the surface area and thereby affects the adhesion.

2. Degrease

In powder coating and liquid coating field, the surface is prepared by just removing foreign substances such as oil and grease on the surface with solvent or detergent, to be coated.

Most of the metal is contaminated with oil because the processing oil or lubricating oil is usually used when the metal goes through the forming process.

Such the oils can decrease the adhesion between the surface of the material and the coating film, or cause defects such as cratering.

Degreasing methods includes using alkaline detergent, acid solution and solvent.

3. Conversion Coating

Conversion coating is slightly difficult to get the concept of it. But it is easy if you think of the plating on the material surface with chemical reaction. The method combines the surface of the material with other metals to improve the coating adhesion and corrosion resistance.

Conversion coating is largely divided into Phsphate and Chromate. Phosphating conversion coating is mainly used for iron(steel) materials, and chromate is used for aluminum(alloy) materials.

In recent years, various conversion coating agents such as Zirconium and non-chrome have come out, and these various conversion coating agents are being developed to reduce environmental pollution, improve adhesion and corrosion resistance.

4. Acid Cleaning

Acid treatment, called pickling, is a method of removing rust or mill scale from surfaces using a strong acid solution.



The preparation methods is used alone or also in combination.

For example, the surface preparation process for the automotive wheel is simply like below.

Blasting -> Degreasing -> Rinsing -> Acid Cleaning -> Rinsing -> Conversion Coating -> Rinsing -> DI water Rinsing

Continuously surface preparation methods are applied in various ways according to environmental regulations, materials to be coated, and pretreatment efficiency, and are being developed in various ways.
And we will see them in detail later.


LINK: Korean Version of This Post([도장 전처리]분체도장에 주로 사용되는 전처리방법들)

[Paint Inspection]MEK rubbing test method and its limitations

Among the test methods, the most popular and easy to use test method for determining the degree of curing of the coating film would be the MEK rub test.

The term of MEK Rub Test is used much however Solvent Rub Test is the accurate term for MEK Rub Test.

It is called 'MEK Rub Test' because MEK is a strong solvent and mainly used among solvents, since the solvent-MEK is mainly used to evaluate the degree of cure of inorganic Silicate Inorganic Zinc Rich Primer, it is usually called more as MEK rub test than Solvent Rub Test.

Pros and Cons of MEK Rub Test

Pros: Easy, Quick, Simple
Cons: Comparative Evaluation, Lack of Reproducibility

Specifications of Solvent Rub Test

• ASTM D5402 Standard Practice for Assessing the Solvent Resistance of Organic Coatings Using Solvent Rubs
• ASTM D4752 Standard Practice for Measuring MEK Resistance of Ethyl Silicate(Inorganic) Zinc-Rich Primers by Solvent Rub

ASTM D5402 is a standard for evaluating the solvent resistance of organic paints, and ASTM D4752 is a standard for measuring the degree of curing of inorganic zinc primers through the solvent (MEK).

Solvent Rub Test Method (MEK Rub Test Method)

1. Prepare a fully cured control panel and a test panel.
2. Moisten a cotton swab or white cloth with a solvent(MEK) and rub it back and forth at a constant pressure.
3. Test on both panels under identical conditions.
4. Determine the degree of cure by comparing the changed state of gloss, coating loss, etc.

Limitations of Solvent Rubbing Test

MEK rubbing testing has limitations due to its test methods.

In the case of ASTM D4752 listed above, the standard provides a reference table to determine the degree of cure, but when used to determine the degree of cure of a organic paint, a generally comparable standard is required. So the disadvantage here is that the degree of cure must be determined by comparison between the fully-controlled panel and test panel.

In addition, when doing MEK test, it is necessary to know the type of paint. This is because some resins have weak solvent resistance to MEK or some solvent, and so even after proper curing, the gloss, film loss, or softening of the coating may be as if uncured.

The aggressive of solvents

MEK, Acetone >>>>>>> Xylene, Toluene

Depending on the resin type and requirements, solvent selection is also required, but MEK is usually used a lot.

One of the limitations of the MEK test is that it is a test conducted by a human.

As a result, test results may vary due to differences in rubbing speed, force, lasting time and other human factors.

(The pressing force, speed, and rubbing distance can be specified in the above ASTM standards or test requirements.)

However, it is widely used as a very useful test method to easily and quickly determine the degree of curing in the field and the laboratory, and test equipment with minimal human factor has been developed and used for more accurate testing in the laboratory.