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26 NOVEMBER 2015 — pfonline.com POWDER/LIQUID Understanding Needs iDeal also chose to have Nordson Corp. in Amherst, Ohio, install its powder coating system over other equipment manufacturers. "There was a ton of knowledge transfer about the limita- tions of our old system, and the capabilities we wanted in a new system," Siegel says. "There were a number of things we really liked about Nordson. They really understood our needs, and they worked with us to run cost analyses of reclaim efficiencies and color change times as well as multiple scenarios to calculate system payback. Construction of the new coating line began at the end of 2014, with Pneu-Mech installing a 650-foot oval, mono- plane line, which included a clean and pretreatment washer, dry-off oven, environmental room, infrared booster and cure oven. The new system includes an all-acid, five-stage pretreat- ment process prior to the parts being sent to the powder coating area. The aluminum parts are processed with an acid-based cleaner, water rinse, conditioning stage and reverse-osmosis water rinse. The parts then receive a phosphoric acid wash followed by a water rinse. The final stage uses an aluminum-specific, environmentally friendly, chrome-free, dried-in-place technology. BCI's E-CLPS 2100 Series is used with the powder coating to maximize adhesion and corrosion resistance. The parts are then processed through a dry-off oven and ready for the powder coating application. Nordson put in a ColorMax 2 powder booth and 14, bar- mounted Encore automatic spray guns, plus two Encore manual spray guns for touch up. The system included an Encore feed center, an iControl integrated control system and an easy-to-clean Nordson breakaway cyclone. The ColorMax booth features a 3 feet × 9 feet opening to accommodate iDeal's fence, pickets, rails, posts and other large parts that need coating. The system is using PPG's ARC 2001 flouropolymer and Newlar flouroethylene vinyl ether (FEVE) powder coatings to give the fence, gate and other products significant hardness and impact resistance, in addition to chemical, abrasion and corrosion resistance. iDeal uses standard colors—black, white, bronze and hunter green—but will also provide custom color options into the hundreds. Quick Color Changes The new line, which moves at about 10 feet per minute, enabled denser loading and packing for improved use and efficiency. The ColorMax 2 spray booth also enables iDeal's production staff to make color changes in less than 10 minutes, instead of 40 minutes with the old system. Siegel says iDeal changes colors about eight times per week, so in the past, it took some time to carefully schedule the changes in order not to disrupt the production schedule. "The fast change capability of our new Nordson system gives us much more flexibility in our production scheduling," he says. The new 145,000-square-foot facility was a space that iDeal would own and renovate for more than $6.5 million. The system included an Encore feed center, an iControl integrated control system and an easy-to-clean Nordson breakaway cyclone.