There’s a little bit of Eurotherm in DIY stores all over Europe now! We recently installed a new automatic in-line continuous feed powder coating system complete with pre-treatment for painting metal cabinets of various sizes and colours for sale in DIY stores all over Europe.
The customer already had an old painting system that was no longer adequate for the type of quality required by the market and so we entered the field with an innovative and optimised solution to guarantee efficiency and versatility in the treatment of pieces of different sizes and in various colours.
Client needs and initial challenges
The customer already had an old powder coating system, but over time, crucial components such as the conveyor, ovens and washing tunnel had become obsolete, no longer meeting the quality standards required by the market. The customer’s initial request was therefore to replace these parts while maintaining the existing painting booth.
It is precisely from this challenge that Eurotherm saw an opportunity: not only to modernize the plant, but also to optimize the entire production process , improving quality, efficiency and work for the operators.
One of the major difficulties was completing the work during the summer production shutdown , with the need to dismantle the old plant and integrate the new equipment in the short time frame of August which notoriously represents the work shutdown of many companies.
Despite the logistical complexity, the challenge was successfully overcome, and the plant is now able to paint approximately 250 lockers per single shift , ensuring significantly increased productivity compared to the past.
The new automatic powder coating plant
The new powder coating plant installed by Eurotherm has been designed to ensure a continuous and highly efficient production flow and is composed of:
- Monorail overhead transfer : allows parts to be automatically transported through the various stages of the painting process and is designed to handle cabinets of various sizes, making it ideal for a wide range of products.
- 3-Stage Pre-Treatment Tunnel with Hot Degreasing : Before being painted, the parts pass through a three-stage pre-treatment tunnel, which is essential to ensure that the surfaces are perfectly clean and free from impurities. The hot degreasing process eliminates dirt, oils and residues, ensuring better paint adhesion and greater durability of the coating.
- Inline drying oven at 120°C : After pre-treatment, the parts are dried in an oven at 120°C to remove all traces of humidity before painting, ensuring that the powder coating can be applied to a completely dry and defect-free surface.
- Existing powder coating booth: has been refurbished and integrated into the new facility, thus ensuring significant savings for the customer, whilst continuing to play a central role in the paint application process.
- Inline polymerization oven at 180°C : After painting, the parts are sent to the polymerization oven, where the oven operates at a temperature of 180°C.
- Manual loading and unloading with integrated lifting and lowering system : an element specifically designed to improve work ergonomics is the integrated lifting and lowering system for loading and unloading pieces. This mechanism facilitates personnel operations, reducing physical effort and improving the efficiency of manual operations.
The results obtained with the renewed system
In addition to replacing obsolete machinery, Eurotherm worked to optimize the space available in the production area. Thanks to a careful preliminary study, the plant was designed to occupy as little space as possible, without compromising production capacity or the quality of the final result.
The optimization of the temperatures at the entrance and exit of the pieces has also allowed to reduce energy consumption and improve production yield.
Thanks to the installation of the new system, the customer can now count on an advanced and reliable solution that not only improves productivity, but also guarantees a superior quality of the painted products.
