Products Finishing

OCT 2017

Products Finishing magazine is the No. 1 industrial finishing publication in the world. We keep our readers informed about the latest news and trends in plating, painting, powder coating, anodizing, electrocoating, parts cleaning, and pretreatment.

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PFonline.com/experts 76 OCTOBER 2017 — PFonline.com POWDER COATING C L I N I C RODGER TALBERT Consultant Rodger has more than 30 years of experience in the powder coating industry. Benefits of New Application Equipment A. Digital spray system controls have been on the market for almost 20 years now, and they do offer some unique func- tions that can often produce material savings and quality improvements. They are particularly useful if you can run somewhat larger batches of different products. Some of the benefits of digital control are the ability to minimize the number of variables in the system, provide more control over the application parameters, and make the system less susceptible to operator error or the effects of outside variables. The high level of control and flex- ibility of these new systems often results in coating and quality cost savings. There are three specific areas in which cost savings can be achieved with digital controls. First, if you are using a cartridge-based powder recovery system and reclaiming higher-volume powders, savings can be realized from controlling the applied coating cost and making sure that the film-build control is as good as it can be and film thick- ness is within a tight range. If your reclaim system uses a cyclone that is somewhat lower in efficiency than the module system, the potential savings could be greater from improvements in powder application efficiency. And of course, spray-to-waste operations are even more depen- dent on application system efficiency for high material utilization. It is also important to understand that tangible savings can result from quality improvements. Consider the capabilities offered by the newer genera- tion equipment. If your equipment is more than 15 years old, these features definitely can benefit your application and save you money: • They are able to store multiple application system settings in memory. The different settings (commonly called presets or recipes) can be programmed for different product types and quickly retrieved when changing from coating one product to another. With a digital spray system, control of the recipe can be changed, and the overall coverage can be much better controlled for more uniform film build and reduced overspray. Another example of savings is adjustment for different powders and colors. Different powders may reach full opacity (complete hiding) at different coating thickness. For example, white powder may require 2 or 3 mils of applied coating for full opacity, while black powder may only need 1.0 to 1.5 mils and yellow may need 2.5 to 3.5 mils. If the system is not Q. We have been powder coating for around 20 years. We coat many different parts and reclaim our higher-volume pow- ders. Overall, we are efficient and operate better than some other powder coating systems I have seen or heard about. Our equipment is old, and we have not updated anything in many years. Although we think our current system is quite ef- ficient, we have heard of the benefits of digital controls and other features that can reduce cost. Is there really any benefit from these new controls, and what kind of cost savings can be expected? adjusted for the different colors, it may apply too much or too little thickness for a specific powder, resulting in a waste of money or possibly a rejected part. • With a digital control system, different settings can be programmed for different powders. Flow rates and gun positions with digital controls can minimize areas of the part that need manual touch-up. Regardless of training and experience, manual touch-up operators are major contributors to excessive applied coating cost. They work hard to make sure parts are fully coated and often (inadvertently) apply an extra mil or two. Thus, minimizing touch-up often results in applied coating savings. • Automatic gun triggering can produce tangible oper- ating cost savings and is often integrated into the new digital control systems. If you have more than three to four seconds worth of line gaps between your parts, turning the guns off during the gaps can not only minimize the overspray but also reduce the picture- framing on the edges of the parts. When coating parts of different heights, the use of "vertical zoning" will turn on only those guns that have parts in their spray area. The increase in the application efficiency of the spray system and reduction in picture-framing on the parts lowers your operating costs. • It is not unusual to find that operators on different shifts do not agree on system settings. Different workers on the line may have different ideas about how the system should be operated. Of course, you should attempt to optimize system performance and encourage uniform settings, but chances are that changes in system settings from shift to shift or operator to operator will occur, and the variances to the applied coating will add cost and reduce overall finish quality. Many digital control systems feature password protection for system settings. Thus, to

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