What Trends Are Influencing Industrial Painting Technology?

Automatic and Gentle Surface Finishing of Large Work Pieces

Christoph Cruse

With an internal diameter of 1650 mm the new vibratory finishing system is one of the largest of this machine type. It fully automatically finishes the surface of components with a diameter of up to 1300 mm in one single operation, be it aircraft engine components, such as turbine disks, or forging dies. PDF-Download

Safely Automate Grinding, Polishing and Deburring

Matthias Gröll

Grinding surfaces, polishing, or deburring edges are labor-intensive and cost-intensive work steps in almost all areas of industry. Employees are also exposed to high levels of stress. On the other hand, there are the advantages of automating the process. The absolute repeat accuracy of robotics enables consistent quality to be achieved. In times when there is a shortage of skilled workers, personnel become available that can be deployed elsewhere. PDF-Download

News

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Trade Fair Highlights

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New System Technology Fully Electric

An ironwork uses its own photovoltaic electricity capacity to operate its new pre-treatment and powder coating plant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. PDF-Download

Coating Gives Guitars a Special Note

Tobias Ahlke is a perfectionist. With his company Essence Guitars, he builds exclusive guitars - by hand: from the raw wood to the finished instrument. The coating plays an important role here - it gives the instruments a special look and feel. For many years, the master guitar maker has been using two flow cup paint guns and, more recently, a multi-purpose cup system. PDF-Download

Automatic Coating Line for Plastic Parts

A machine manufacturer has developed an automatic system for a well-known contract coater that coats both flat and curved 2.5-D components in a paint cabin. Its special feature: with the help of a UV robot, it can also process UV coatings. PDF-Download

Products

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Increased Efficiency in Ongoing Operations

A sustainable overall concept for production was important to a leading provider of energy solutions and services when they decided to optimize their entire production facility. The particular challenge: the modernization was to take place during ongoing operations. PDF-Download

Switched to Low-Temperature Powder Coating System

A Qualicoat-certified company with its own powder coating system has been converting all powder coatings to a new low-temperature powder coating system since mid-2023. The oven temperature, which is permanently reduced by 10 °C, saves energy costs and, thanks to the high over-curing stability, different material thicknesses can be coated. PDF-Download

Paint Expo 2024: Focus on Efficiency and Resource Protection

Preparations for the 9th edition of PaintExpo are in the final stages and the signs for the world's leading trade fair for industrial coating technology from April 9 to 12, 2024 are very good: around 430 exhibitors are expected. At the international industry platform, visitors will be able to inform themselves about technological developments for the sustainable and energy-efficient painting processes of the future, among other things. PDF-Download

Three Processes in One Industrial Robot

Lasers and electric arcs are powerful and sustainable processes for repairing and functionalizing surfaces. However, conventional systems for structuring or deposition welding are still associated with high investment costs. To counter this trend, Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT has integrated three processes - laser structuring and laser and arc deposition welding - into a standard industrial robot. PDF-Download

Physical Removal Instead of Chemical Dissolution

There is a widespread belief that only aggressive chemicals can clean surfaces effectively. A deeptech company has developed an innovative technology for removing flux from electronic components that disproves this assumption. The solution, which won the FiT2clean Award 2023, is based on complex microemulsions that physically lift off organic contaminants instead of dissolving them chemically. PDF-Download

Objective Determination of Gloss

Gabi Kigle-Böckler

Uniform and consistent gloss is an essential quality feature of a wide range of products. It is therefore necessary to determine gloss objectively. Only what can be measured objectively can be controlled and optimized, which is important in product development and production. There are a few things to bear in mind when measuring gloss. PDF-Download

New Powder Coating Offers High Potential

Sandro Albano

A classic problem when coating with powder coatings is the loadability and the associated problems in the form of the application of the powder coatings. These are, for example, the penetration behavior in Faraday cages, but also the coating thickness distribution or the first coat efficiency. This is where a new generation of powder coatings comes in. Thanks to appropriate production methods and the addition of new additives, the products achieve properties that did not previously exist in this form. PDF-Download

Spinner Hanger Blast Machine is Eight Times Faster

A lack of flexibility and unsatisfactory quality in powder coating by external service providers led a Dutch manufacturer of industrial furniture to set up its own paint store. Thanks to the decision to automate pretreatment with a spinner hanger blasting system right from the start, the company blasts eight times faster compared to a manual process. PDF-Download