The choice of tool is fundamental to limit wastage, emissions, disposal, etc. It is therefore necessary to use highly efficient equipment, systems and technologies which should be compatible with performance and aesthetic requirements as well as justifiable in terms of the productivity-investment ratio. The following are some of the solutions available:

• Dipping
• Flow coatings
• Cataphoresis
• Anaphoresis
• On-line roller/setting coat equipment
• Machines and equipment with paint recovery
• Powder equipment

Unfortunately, because of the shape of certain manufactured objects and/or the required aesthetic standards, spray applications using liquid paints cannot be substituted. It is therefore convenient to evaluate the transfer efficiency of each spray painting tool within the scope of this area.

Since it would be too long and tedious to reproduce here the well known disquisitions on the subject, we go on directly to the conclusions. The most effective instrument in this field is the electrostatic tool:

• Disk
• Bell
• Pneumatic atomizing gun
• Medium pressure gun
• High pressure gun

Whether you want to achieve a corona effect or a direct charge, the choice of system and tool depends on the type of manufacture and painting product used. Moreover, with such tools it is easier to automate the system and there are greater chances of guaranteeing the repetition of the process.

Servo equipment

The anthropomorphic robot is a synonym of automation during the application phase.

This robot is capable of endlessly repeating the same operation, has no physiological needs and can work up to 24 hours a day. It’s almost too good to be true!

However, it does have some inconvenient: the robot can carry out a set task but is incapable of seeing what it is doing.

What if the item is in the wrong position or the gun is not spraying properly?

All things considered, this is no more than a gun and its production remains rather poor. Moreover, the preparation and perfecting of its programs take up a lot of time and energy, not to mention the number of errors which can be made when selecting the programs.

While it cannot be denied that in certain instances the use of the anthropomorphic robot is objectively advantageous, we think its usefulness has been overestimated and that consequently it has wrongly been adopted on many painting lines.

We rather tend to re-evaluate the good old pump bob capable of holding four or more guns and of ‘reading’ the item to be painted, considering it is not so old after all, since the most advanced versions can have four or more types of movement.

Does the impossibility of reaching full automation really represent such a drawback?

To answer this question, all you have to do is compare the productivity of a fully automated system with its costs even when the intervention required is a simple touch-up, as well as quantify wastage when using such a system and when using a pump bob.

Additional apparatus

With this term we define all components, tools and support systems interlocked with the painting line and designed to prevent:

• disorder and dirt
• useless/avoidable manipulations and movements
• human errors
• wastage and waste of time
• dangerous situations

What are the instruments which can be grouped under this heading? The answer is:

• paint preparation and pumping stations
• metering and mixing units for multiple-component paints
• automatic colour change systems
• automatic washing devices

Some people argue that such instruments are expensive, but in doing so they clearly show they have not correctly evaluated the incidence of dead time, wastage, errors and rejects.

If they did, they would find out that it amounts to 35-40%, a fact which induces us to think that the investment cost can be retrieved very quickly.

General Management Logics

Electronics, what a fine invention! It allows you to have co-ordinated logic functions and successions that are interfaced with all system components.

It is possible to get rid of human errors by setting up a fully computerised painting division which in case can be connected and interfaced with a bigger system co-ordinating orders and delivery. To set up such a division, all you have to do is locate the different connections and co-ordinate them within a single logic succession.

We can do this and much more! Not only can we set up such a sophisticated and extremely expensive system, but we can also find intermediate modular solutions corresponding to your actual needs which you will be able to expand when necessary. Having done this, the electronic component of the system provides you with reports on its efficiency.

If, by reading this brief and perforce schematic description, you get the impression that the solutions available are rather univocal and so to speak ‘one way’, we assure you that it is not so. It is possible to find ‘hybrid solutions’ within each cycle phase which are highly effective in that particular instance without overlooking the system overall flexibility. To be able to do so is another quality of Coating Team: we can offer you custom made products which, besides being perfectly respondent to your specific needs, have also the advantage of being modular and extremely versatile, two qualities we hope you hold in great consideration.