New Aquitaine, South West France. A land of vineyards, castles and – from now on – of fast, optimized and high-quality coating processes. Could Eurotherm have had a hand in this?
The answer is yes, but let’s take a step back.
The players involved in the project
It all began with Charente Pliage, a company specializing in processing and coating metal components for architecture. The desire is to speed up processing times without compromising quality, particularly in terms of the products’ resistance to atmospheric agents. Charente Pliage’s first step was therefore to open a second production facility – Sud-Ouest Laquage, in New Aquitaine – equipped with grit blasting, metallization and coating booths, as well as two polymerization ovens.
Then came growth and an increasingly fast-paced market. Sud-Ouest Laquage needs to speed up the coating preparation phase. The decision is to integrate a tunnel for automatic pre-treatment into the plant.
Industrie-Systèmes, Eurotherm’s partner since 2010 and supplier to Charente Pliage, contacted us to design and supply the tunnel.
The very last players in the project are the French Aertech, supplier of chemicals for pre-treatment, and the Italian Chemtec, responsible for chemical formulations.
A five-stage multi-metal pre-treatment tunnel
The pre-treatment tunnel would have to handle parts of different types, shapes, materials and sizes as effectively as possible: in particular, Sud-Ouest Laquage’s equipment is capable of handling parts with a surface area of up to 4 meters. The products generally require grit blasting or metallization, which give them anti-corrosive protection, however the company was looking for a solution that could also ensure other types of artifacts greater resistance to the aggression of atmospheric agents and corrosion.
The tunnel was studied in collaboration with Industrie-Systemes, and truly is one of a kind. The same system is in fact capable of carrying out 2 different pre-treatment processes, to be selected depending on the material to be treated:
- The pre-treatment of steel and galvanized steel involves a phospho-degreasing or alkaline degreasing stage, followed by 3 rinses (2 with mains water and the last one with osmotized water and nanometer conversion).
- The pre-treatment of aluminum includes an initial acid pickling to remove oxides from welding and annealing, followed by the same 3 rinses.
Given the presence of different liquids, the tunnel was designed to minimize the risk of contamination between liquids during the different phases.
A final note. Chemtec took care of the liquid formulations based on its PRONORTEC system, a unique nanotechnological conversion that employs the chemistry of organic phosphorus compounds. The system is totally free of heavy metals, requires no rinsing, has a very long life and is simple to apply.
The results of successful teamwork
At Sud-Ouest Laquage, the new custom pre-treatment tunnel has brought nothing but benefits:
- Improved quality of the parts, with increasing paint adhesion on metal substrates.
- Improved quality of the work environment, as chemical pretreatment replaces traditional sanding.
- Reduced cost of the entire process.
- Minimization of energy and water consumption, as well as very low impact on the environment. The coating process can thus achieve the goals set by green and circular economy.
- Possibility of responding more quickly to the demands coming not only from the architectural sector – the company’s primary client – but also from the furniture and carpentry industries.
