CASE STUDY
2025Eurotherm’s flexible coating plant for Giletta S.p.A.
Customer
GILETTA SPA BUCHER MUNICIPAL – Revello (CN).
Objective
Doubling the production rate of the previous plant to meet the needs of seasonal peaks
Challenges
Improving the quality of anti-corrosion coatings through a mixed-cycle painting plant with liquid primer and powder finish
Impact
Mixed-cycle painting for performance and aesthetics
Winter maintenance vehicles work in close contact with aggressive agents and risk premature wear if not equipped with a high-performance coating.
To ensure corrosion resistance of more than 2,000 hours in salt spray, together with Giletta S.p.A. engineers and Tecniver owner Fabio Baldo, we designed a mixed-cycle coating system with liquid primer and powder finish.
The liquid primer, which is more flexible and manipulable than the powder primer, is formulated to increase corrosion resistance given by specific agents, and to penetrate better on components with numerous welded castings and special geometries. The mixed cycle with application of the liquid primer and powder topcoat makes the curing step unnecessary, lowering related energy costs and increasing the plant’s production speed.
Parallel processing in the “box” plant
Compared with the old step-by-step in-line plant, the new manual painting plant has doubled the production rate and improved production responsiveness, reducing shifts from two to one with high gas and electricity savings.
The painting cycle begins with mechanical shot blast pretreatment to clean the part and give the surface a predetermined 30 Micron surface roughness suitable for paint adhesion.
All medium and small parts are blasted in the cluster machine, while the caissons are pretreated in the preexisting blast machine, which was restored by revamping to return. The three-stage automatic cell pretreatment tunnel is used to clean all those parts that cannot be blasted.
The process continues with liquid galvanizing with booth drying at 25°C, followed by powder coating. The powder coating application booth dedicated to RAL2011 orange, the company color, is recovery, while the one dedicated to the application of all other colors requested by customers is disposable.
Process technology and operational flexibility
The lift stations with which the plant is equipped make it easier for operators to load and unload heavy workpieces. The maximum workpiece hanging capacity in the plant is 2,200 kg with a maximum length of 7.5 m.
The plant is equipped with inverters to regulate the kinetic energy of the abrasive projected by the centrifugal turbines in order to avoid any deformation or damage to the carpentry with thin thicknesses. The same system is used to manage the air flow rate of the pressurized booths and to pre-freeze the powder in the curing ovens.
Plus
“Eurotherm’s box concept with four booths and three curing ovens gave us the flexibility and speed that an automatic in-line plant could never give us. Also, having double booths allows us to use them two by two or all four at the same time during production peaks.Our goal was to have a technological yet flexible plant; Eurotherm fully met this requirement.” Fabrizio Abello, Giletta S.p.A.