How to draw up the Terms of Reference for the creation of a powder coating line

When creating a new industrial enterprise, manufacturers try to cover all technological processes in order to ultimately get a complete product, ready for transportation to store shelves. It is the desire to be independent from others that prompts companies to create a powder coating line in their workshops. A one-time investment in equipment and the further purchase of high-quality powder paint allows you to save on costs for coating products at third-party enterprises.

Why are most metal manufacturers switching to powder coating today? It would seem that liquid paint is much more profitable, since there is no need to use specific expensive equipment. And yet, it is inferior in its quality to powder and in this case it is completely uncompetitive. Powder coating can easily meet all customer coating requirements. It is stable and environmentally friendly, protects metal products from contamination, and also has good anti-corrosion properties and high performance characteristics. Today, suppliers can offer a huge number of textures that can be formed by the powder coating method, and according to the RAL catalog, the colors do not limit the desires of customers at all. Thus, powder paint is a very beneficial type of metal processing.

However, to apply powder paint, it is imperative to buy special equipment. For a fast and automated dyeing process, an automatic powder coating line or stationary workshop is installed in the same production facility where the product is created. They include a conveyor that ensures the movement of the part between all painting processes: surface preparation line, drying, spraying chamber and curing oven. The conveyor helps to connect all the links and speed up the process. Or manual transport systems, the purpose of which is the same movement of products between the main modules.

In order to form the correct request for a particular line of powder coating, it is necessary to understand the principles of operation and the necessary equipment for each stage of this line.

Cleaning chamber

Any dyeing process begins with the preparation of a part or a whole product. To do this, it must be degreased and cleaned of dirt with various solutions. The cleaning process takes place in a special chamber.

Cleaning can be carried out by various methods such as spraying, immersion in special solutions, or sandblasting if there are significant contamination / defects. If we are talking about chemical cleaning, it is necessary to design a place for tanks with solutions. Most often, this cleaning requires several stages, so these chambers have separate compartments through which, thanks to the conveyor system, the product is transported and processed without unnecessary effort.

Drying chamber

After cleaning with soluble materials, the product must be completely dried from moisture and any residues. Therefore, it goes to the next chamber of the cycle, where it is dried at a temperature of 100 ° C – 160 ° C. It should be noted that the result of the coating depends on the preparation of the material for painting, since insufficient cleaning can affect the appearance of unwanted defects.

Sputtering chamber

The spraying chamber is usually made from metal covered with the same powder paint, from galvanized steel or even plastic. It is important that the inside of all walls are smooth and do not have deep corners. This will help in the future to quickly clean the camera from the remains of polymer paint (when changing from color to color).

The spraying chamber includes: a working chamber, a cyclone, a filter unit, an air purification unit, which will help maintain the proper condition of the air, its purity and purity in the workshop.

The cyclone is installed in some types of spray booths to improve material recovery. It helps to separate the fines from the coarse and feeds the coarse to a clean paint bin for continuous use. It also has a built-in sieve that separates the debris that gets along with the paint. This allows you to significantly increase the cost-effectiveness of production, since as a result it turns out to be absolutely waste-free.

Polymerization oven

The next stage is polymerization. In this module, the powder paint is melted and becomes a hard coating. It is important to note that the oven should be chosen depending on the size of the product, on the conveyor and its direction, because there are one-sided and through polymerization ovens. There are different types of heating: electric heating, gas, diesel or solid fuel. It also contains a control panel where the operator controls the temperature, heating rate and reflow processes.

Thus, all these stages are connected by a transport system, manual or automatic conveyor. Various types of conveyors allow you to work with the corresponding product sizes, for example, some transport products weighing up to 200 kg.

We create a technical specification for an equipment manufacturer

Next, the question arises, how to create a technical specification so that the manufacturer fulfills all the conditions and the process of creating the coating fully satisfies?

First of all, you need to figure out what you need from the painting equipment.

So the equipment should pay for itself. That is, one should expect that in the future the purchase and installation of a powder coating line will indeed be effectively used, the equipment will serve for a long time and will quickly reimburse all costs. At the same time, it must ensure the proper quality of the products so that customers are satisfied and sales only grow.

In order to correctly draw up the technical specification and obtain the necessary equipment, the following points must be indicated:

Product information

Any product has its own characteristics: dimensions, weight, material, thickness, area that it will occupy. All this must be indicated in order to calculate the most useful equipment for you. It is ideal to provide the manufacturer with drawings in general, which will make it possible to even better characterize the products and select the appropriate modules for the painting line. If the range of products is not homogeneous, all possible variations must be indicated. The manufacturer will be able to navigate faster if you group all products by size. Already on the basis of product data, the dimensions of the passage openings, the carrying capacity, the thermal power of the oven and drying, the speed of the conveyor, the power of the recovery system and the spraying system are determined.

Industrial premises

At the same time, all dimensions must be adapted to the dimensions of your production hall. For this, the manufacturer is provided with a plan of your premises. He evaluates it and places the equipment in it with the most profitable routes for moving your products.

Energy carriers

Energy is required during the formation of the powder coating. Typically, an enterprise uses a specific source: electricity, gas or other fuels. Depending on this, the necessary equipment is selected that can properly function in the conditions created for it.

Working hours

It is also important to consider the overall load on the equipment. The need for its capacity depends on how many work shifts per day, per week the equipment will operate, as well as the frequency of full inspection, or replacement of parts.

Paint color and frequency of their change

In factories where there is only one serial color, the recovery situation is greatly simplified. However, when frequent color changes are required, it is important to select the optimal spray booth type. Often, several recovery systems are installed, each of which is aimed at a particular color.

By providing all the information you need, you can be confident that the manufacturer will create the perfect powder coating workshop for you, saving you time, money and effort.