Finishing system manufacturer and conveyor specialist work together to deliver innovative paint finishing solutions. 

Pacline Conveyors has many years of experience working with paint finishing companies to improve their productivity through automation.

Elite Air Systems specializes in manufacturing all types of high quality spray finishing systems, including spray booths, conveyor automated finishing systems, industrial paint kitchens, bake ovens and air make-up units.

Mike Regalado from Elite Air Systems and Robert D’Alesio from Pacline Conveyors have been working together on paint finishing applications for some time now and have developed a good working relationship.

Mike has extensive knowledge of the paint-finishing world and calls on the experts at Pacline Conveyors to provide the best conveyor options for their individual customer needs. Recently, Mike had a new project with his customer Angelo Radelja at Romet Ltd. Romet manufactures and supplies rotary gas meters and related instruments to gas utilities and customers around the world.

Romet needed a new gas meter paint finishing system that would increase production capacity of their smaller sized gas meters.  Mike quickly contacted PACLINE to provide the conveyor design and equipment for this application.  Robert worked closely with both Angelo and Mike to come up with an efficient layout and drawing within the allowable space. 

PACLINE designs and fabricates custom carriers for gas meter paint finishing system.

Prototype for custom part carrier developed by PACLINE

Angelo’s idea to increase the production rate for his gas meters involved a new carrier that would to double the product carrying capacity.  Since Angelo had little time or resources to dedicate to this, Robert at PACLINE took on the task of designing the carrier to handle the gas meters on the new gas meter paint finishing system.  From Robert’s design, PACLINE’s fabrication shop produced a prototype for testing and final production.

PACLINE provides turnkey systems with electrical controls

Robert worked directly with Romet Ltd. and Elite Air to provide electrical design as well as to program the control panel for their conveyor system. Electrical features included, interlocks with the paint booth system, proper controls at the load / unload area as well as inside the paint booth. The design included an inexpensive PLC to adjust the dwell-time of the start horn for system operators and the ability to adjust the lubricator timer for maintenance personnel.  Robert also programmed additional display messages for maintenance personnel to view conveyor faults, lube cycles and total run time on the PLC LCD screen.

PACLINE’s ability to offer turnkey conveyor systems with electrical controls to suit customer requirements saves time and money.  Offering these extra services and working closely with suppliers and customers, PACLINE can help minimize errors or confusion.

Working with experienced suppliers and application experts is important on all industrial engineered projects. Having all groups work closely as a team is the real key to the overall success.

PACLINE motor and lubricator are wired to the control panel.

PACLINE control panel with the VFD mounted externally to allow the flexibility to adjust the conveyor speed quickly.

New integrator finds PACLINE conveyors easy to install for paint finishing customer

A discussion with Art Koch of Unified Technologies

Unified Technologies in Cleveland, Ohio has provided high quality shot blast equipment, washers, spare parts, technical support, service, and blast media since 1999. They provide a full range of shot blast and wash systems to handle the wide variety of customer applications.

Art Koch, president of Unified Technologies was looking for the best conveyor product to recommend for his customer, Advanced Gas and Welding Solutions LLC. Advanced Gas and Welding Solutions needed to find a way to increase production by automating their process for painting gas propane bottles.

Koch started with an on-line search and came across PACLINE’s video called Overhead Conveyor System Basics.  This gave him a quick overview of PACLINE’s overhead conveyors and led him to another video that very specifically demonstrated the exact application his customer was looking for!  – Wet Spray Finishing Conveyor System for Painting Propane Bottles.

We asked Art to tell us about his first experience with PACLINE Overhead Conveyors.

What were your customer’s requirements of the new conveyor system?

“The new conveyor was required to replace the existing manual paint system at Advance Gas and Welding Solutions. The paint finishing line included a propane bottle washer as well as a paint booth. Our customer required a complete system that would fully integrate the propane tank cleaning and painting processes.

Spraycon Inc. is a paint finishing integrator located in Concord, Ontario CANADA and has been in business for over 15 years. They develop and design turnkey systems for spray applications which could be paint, 1K systems, 2K systems or gluing operations. Their typical customers are tier 1 automotive companies. Spraycon Inc. has been one of the first companies to develop and utilize a system that incorporates an infrared ovens for paint curing.

Challenge:

Spraycon Inc. needed to supply a complete finishing system to handle 25 lb. machined automotive engine parts. The automotive customer required this final finishing system to spot paint their engine parts at 7 precise points where the part had been machined for attachments.

In addition, the customer had a very tight layout for this system and a cycle requirement of 1 part per 80 seconds minimum.

Solution:

PACLINE had worked with Spraycon Inc. in the past to supply various conveyors systems for their paint finishing projects.  With no two projects ever the same, Ron Phillips (Pacline Project Engineer) worked closely with Mike Couteau at Spraycon Inc. to determine the best conveyor type and overall design to meet the needs of this automotive application.

The required finishing system had 4 separate zones that needed to operate independently:

• Part loading
• Spray painting
• Curing
• Part Unload

Due to the number of processes involved and the layout constraints, it was decided that a power and free or non-synchronous conveyor would offer the best solution.

Robotic spray paint system

Incorporating a robotic spray paint system had a number of advantages. First, it required minimal space to operate which was particularly important for this installation. And secondly, since the parts did not require overall painting but rather spot painting, the robot could deliver this in a much more precise manner compared to hand spraying.  With very little paint overspray, the system was kept clean and reduced wasted paint.

PACLINE Overhead Conveyors has developed a pre-engineered system for handling the 10 to 12 foot long copper bars used in Electro-Plating shops. This sophisticated design has eliminated the necessity of using hand operated trolleys for the transfer of workloads to and from the hoist lines of plating tanks.

The PAC-LINE™ overhead conveyor, using our standard No. 175 Bar Carrier Trolley, can transport loads in excess of 400 lbs. Our special design allows the 10 to 12 foot long work bar to manoeuver the standard radius curves of the overhead conveyor with ease. Loaded racks can be easily transferred from the overhead conveyor to the hoist for dipping as required.

This system is designed to allow the transfer of the loaded work bar directly from the hoist to the overhead conveyor. This loading signals the conveyor to run until the empty No. 175 trolley is in position to receive the next loaded work bar from the plating line.

The same system applies to the opposite end of the plating tanks. Loaded work bars are automatically delivered to the front of the line of plating tanks. The hoist can quickly pick up the loaded bar carrier, beginning the plating process.

The entire conveyor system is synchronized to allow both the empty bar carrier and the loaded carrier to stop automatically at opposite ends of the elecroplating line, so that the loading and unloading of the hoist can be completed simultaneously between the conveyor’s cycles.

This proven Electro-Plating system can substantially increase your production and at the same time eliminate unnecessary labor. For additional information on your specific requirements, contact us PACLINE at 1-800-955-8860

Kinetics Furniture was one of the early innovators in powder coating technology 13 years ago when it began applying a modified powder on its hi-tech look contract furniture.

The Rexdale, Ont., firm sells Canadian designed furniture by contract to hard-use customers such as airports, schools, hospitals, offices, etc. Why powder, as opposed to the time-honored use of chrome? The answer lies in the high gloss, durable finish.

“We were quite taken with the information that was coming out of Britain and France at the time about powder, with its potential for a very high level finish,” says James Good, vice-president and general manager. “The thing that made our application fairly complicated was concern for the mass of material going through the oven, which had to be elevated to a fairly high temperature.”

That is where trial and error entered the picture. The old adage that ‘the only way to do something right is to do it yourself’ is a sustaining belief held by Kinetics. The company went through eight years of system adjustments until it got it to a point that satisfied it’s zest for quality. The largest problem involved the number of air changes per minute the oven would require.

Another key to Kinetics’ success lies in it’s ability to adapt developing technology to the line. The company has seen a 50 percent growth in sales in each of the last seven years, according to Good, and is currently on the third generation of equipment. The newest addition is a second Volstatic spray booth, designed to increase production by being utilized as an emergency booth for short runs.

“We don’t have one stick of equipment we had 13 years ago,” says Good. “We’ve taken advantage of all the developments in the coating, application and, oven-building industries.”

The Kinetics finishing system includes a two-stage washer, a two-stage pre-heat drying oven, two spray booths and a 60-foot final cure oven. The two-stage washer utilizes a phosphate etching system, custom built to the sizes of the largest and smallest Kinetics products, and to the variations in line speed. There is no need to program for different chemicals because the company deals mainly with cold rolled steel and some aluminum.

After the iron phosphate wash, the unfinished furniture, primarily tubular steel, is taken through the clean water rinse. A Volstatic gas-fired oven dries the metal at 500° F for five minutes after the rinse. The steel must be perfectly dry after this stage for proper bonding. If moisture gets trapped inside the tube there would be a cold spot, which would cause a fluctuation in the finish, either in the surface texture or the gloss. Once a part leaves the oven it loses temperature at an average of 25° F per foot, a number that varies with heavy gauge metals, which retain heat longer (and take longer to heat). The parts are conveyed throughout on a PAC-LINE™ variable speed conveyor system. Kinetics usually preheats parts to 300° F before coating, again depending on substrate and line speed variables. This variation is decreasing because Kinetics wants the line to remain fairly constant for production efficiency throughout the plant, depending more on the variable temperature range of the oven. The company has also been finding slight curing fluctuations with color changes. The need for experienced decision making is a factor in why it is very difficult to break directly into in-house powder coating technology, says Good.

After leaving the pre-heat oven, furniture enters the electrostatic spray booth where one of three painters spray the modified epoxy powder. Kinetics had it modified to withstand heat, retain its gloss, and maintain the general epoxy abrasion and impact resistance, all within the parameters of an average heavy dry film thickness. The powder application technique is standard fare, with the exception of the preheating to 300° F.

“We coat hot, which is different than most powder applicators,” says Ross Kirwin, director of manufacturing. “But we find the heat enhances the mil build of paint. The first bonding of the particles to the steel is electrostatic. That first layer melts and the secondary attraction is from the tackiness of the melted powder particles. Generally, it allows us to get mil builds in the order of twice normal for powder coatings.

One of the problems generally associated with powder coatings is color change, however Kinetics is quite proud of it’s basic selection of 20 colors with a base of 16 more colors upon special request. Thirteen years ago it might have taken more than an hour to change colors, but now, with the refinements that experience brings, this has been reduced to a more manageable 20 minutes.

A strong marketing point of powder coating has been the ability to re-cycle overspray saving material costs, but Kinetics cannot utilize this advantage because of the high grade of product purity it requires. If the system is purged and misses even a few particles, these will emerge into the next color, not as blending, but with a speckled effect.

There is a strong shop bonus system at Kinetics based on production, not rejection rates. The system is designed to reward the entire shop collectively as opposed to individual awards. As far as the future is concerned, Kinetics is relying, so to speak, on the past. Experience is a wonderful thing to have when used wisely. Constantly adapting the finishing line to changing technologies has been the company strong point for the past 13 years. The early systems were difficult to purge, so the company obtained larger pumps. As Kinetics started selling furniture it was discovered that customers buy in relatively small orders when considered in terms of production runs, so the company went to smaller batching pots.

The recent acquisition of a second finishing booth will speed production by allowing uninterrupted runs on the first booth, relieving it of emergency and small part finishing jobs. The company could conceivably even change coatings.

“One of the things we’ve been looking at are the new low temperature epoxy systems. Whether or not we can get the same quality we are used to remains to be seen. The impact of low temperature curing epoxies is that you can cure and apply at half the temperature, which means your line can move twice as fast,” says Kirwin.

Coatings Magazine, Nov/Dec 1984

An overhead conveyor offers many advantages over other methods of moving parts between various manufacturing operations. It can transport items through areas not accessible to workers, such as automatic spray booths and drying ovens, or where hazardous conditions exist. The weight carrying capacity is greater than any employee, and it does it without tiring or taking breaks.

Often an enclosed overhead conveyor can be installed where a floor conveyor would be impractical. When there is a need to temporarily hold work-in-progress, carriers can be switched to recirculating loops or storage spurs until needed. Safety devices can be installed on inclined sections to control runaway carriers in the event of chain breakage.

Specializing in overhead conveyors for woodworking applications, PACLINE’s pre-engineered standard conveyor components feature an enclosed-track design and bolt-together construction. The conveyor chain travels within an enclosed track, where it is protected from the plant environment. The extremely low-friction design of the chain makes it possible to power long
systems from a single drive.

Because the drive system is one of the most important components, PACLINE conveyors incorporate a unique caterpillar drive unit, which can be placed in most the convenient location. It is not restricted to corner placement, as is typical in many systems. Another feature of PACLINE systems is the elimination of sprocket turns that, in addition to being dangerous, are also costly and difficult to install and maintain.

Published in Canadian Woodworking, November 1989