BY TIM PENNINGTON EDITOR
Iowa's Co-Line is a Top Shop that uses
analytics to improve efficiencies.
Co-Line's new system provides
real-time information to under-
stand job costs and compare
painter's performances such
as spray gun trigger times and
average sprayed flow rates per job.
18
NOVEMBER 2016 — PFonline.com
THE VOICE OF FINISHING
80
YEARS
Some may look at liquid paint equipment as a part of the
application process, but Eric Brand takes a more diagnostic
approach.
The vice president of Co-Line Manufacturing in rural Sully,
Iowa, has been using his new spray guns and mixing system
that he installed in 2015 as more than just a way to spray
coatings.
"Our driver in the new equipment was updating to an auto-
mated 2K mixing system," Brand says. "We knew we had to
increase efficiencies, and that there was better technology out
there that could make us better."
But when Brand started digging deeper into the available
equipment on the market, he was intrigued by a system that
delivered a treasure trove of data analytics that accompanied
the spraying process, enabling Co-Line to see hard numbers
on its efficiencies.
That system—Binks' Global Electronic Mixing Solutions, or
GEMS for short—provides real-time information such as spray
gun utilization, production run rates, average flow rates, and
color-change times. Using a 7-inch touchscreen, the system is
also designed to assist operators with fault troubleshooting
rather than just alarm codes.
"It simply shows us on a very easy-to-read display of where
our costs are going when applying paint," Brand says. "Having
that information on top of better analytics has been a real
breakthrough for us."
LIQUID/POWDER
Data-Driven Coater
Uses Technology
to Improve Finishes