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20 NOVEMBER 2015 — pfonline.com PLATING P L A T I N G for us to bring it here and let our people get to work on it." PKG personnel recycled many of the existing components on the used line, including moving some stations around to get it ready for the zinc application. The rebuild included removing the tanks from the base and reconditioning the base parts, which meant sandblasting and coating the steel, and even installing new steel where needed. The tanks were inspected and repaired if needed, and then put back on the base and configured exactly as it would be at the Monroe shop. That's when new plumbing was installed, and steam and condensation lines were added. Then it was time to take apart the line in modules and get them ready to ship and install at Monroe's plant a few miles away after the shop's infrastructure was ready to accept it. 90-Foot Line PKG personnel installed the new line's main exhaust and hoist system first, and got it in place and ready for the remaining parts. The 90-foot line was modularized into four separate sections, and was brought over from the PKG facility to Monroe one section at a time, a process that took roughly two days to complete. "We used the installed hoist structure to install the modules, and that was a tremendous help," Rowe says. Another big reason for the quick install was that Monroe sent an electrician to unwire before removal and then to PKG's facility to rewire the line. This meant, when it arrived at the plating shop, it was very easy to make the connections and install the equipment seamlessly. "I would highly recommend electrician involvement up front for anyone who plans on doing an installation like this," Rowe says. "It just went very smoothly, and we reused a majority of the existing wiring." The line includes six plating cells with individual 15- volt/1,500 amp tank rectification, plus the two fully automatic hoists each with 180-pound maximum load capacity per barrel. Rowe says the line has the ability to run 12 barrels concur- rently, and it came with an Allen Bradley PLC controller that has touch screen capability, variable speed control on rota- tional motors, an automatic temperature control module and automatic chemical addition based on amp-hour usage. Rowe says that when the system is set in automatic mode, the parts to be plated are entered into the controller with a predetermined processing recipe based on the weight of the part and the plated surface areas. The controller uses this information to automatically adjust rectification to the level needed to meet the plating thickness requirement. Flexibility in Operations "We run thousands of different parts, so it's important to Elcometer 550 Powder Thickness Gauge Accurately predicts cured thickness of a coatng before cure - without disturbing coatng powders Whether measuring pre-cure thickness, oven temperature profling, dry flm thickness, gloss or other physical test parameters, Elcometer's range of high quality powder coatng inspecton products are available at compettve pricing. Powder Thickness Oven Data Logging Physical Test Dry Film Thickness The Elcometer 550 ultrasonic thickness gauge accurately predicts cured thickness of powder on metal, plastc, wood and MDF to a resoluton of 1 micron. The Elcometer 215 is an easy to use oven data recorder, used to measure and store the temperature profles of both the sample and the oven during the cure process. 40% faster than other coatng thickness gauges, the Elcometer 456 provides faster, more accurate and repeatable readings. Elcometer ofer a wide range of test equipment to assess parameters including: abrasion, hardness, elastcity, elongaton, deformaton and gloss. www.elcometer.com sales@elcometer.com USA & Canada: (800) 521-0635