*Batteries Not Included: Explore What Comes with Automated Finishing Systems Before You Purchase

When you make any new purchase, there’s always the consideration: ‘What else do I need?’ Batteries, for example, are necessary for so many things, from electronics to toys. In the world of automated paint systems, all those extras are a bit more complex. Many in the industry have questions about what’s part of the system and what’s not. To answer these burning questions, the IntelliFinishing Systems team put together this information for those that want to install our automated painting solutions.

Below, you’ll find three categories regarding the state of inclusion in this handy guide: Always/Almost Always, Sometimes, or Not Usually/Never.

Always/Almost Always Included

If needed for your finishing system, these components are usually part of the system.

First is a sophisticated control system. It integrates all the process equipment and the conveyor operation to enable tracking of every parts carrier. Each carrier can have different recipes to process a wider variety of parts versus other, more traditional conveyorized finishing systems.

Here are other individual elements that are usually part of the solution we provide.

  • Friction-tube conveyor system with column or ceiling support options
  • Pretreatment automated or manual wash systems
  • Dry off and cure ovens
  • Environmental rooms that surround booths with ideal HVAC conditions
  • An experienced project team overseeing all subs/vendors that also coordinates the project from start to finish
  • 24/7 help desk and warranty support
  • Electrical installation
  • Booth, process equipment, and conveyor mechanical installations
  • RO (reverse osmosis) water system
  • Trash disposal
  • Fork-truck and scissor lift rental to facilitate system installation
  • Software licenses and potentially a virtual or physical server to host the operating system
  • Control Panels with VFDs (variable frequency drives), PLCs (programmable logic controllers), and internal wiring
  • HMI (human-machine interface) control panels and emergency stop stations to operate the system with networked office computer visibility into system operation

More elements almost always included if needed, such as:

  • Lifts at load or unload (if needed and/or for other reasons like to ascend or descend for high or low processes)
  • Cooling tunnels
  • VOC (volatile organic compound) flash chambers
  • Masking or QC platforms
  • Shot containment rooms

Sometimes IncludedSometimes Included but Often Purchased Independently

Next, let’s define the items that may come with the system, but many users of automated finishing systems purchase on their own.

Liquid or Powder Coating Booths

These booths include all application equipment. In our experience, most of our customers purchase these directly. We may supply only the booth in some scenarios, while users source application equipment from others. The application equipment consists of guns, reciprocators (and peripheral equipment to support the reciprocators), powder or liquid paint supply systems, mixing systems, a paint filter or reclaim system, etc.

Robots

We can provide robots if your powder coating or liquid coating solution specifies them. Typically, our customers purchase robots and software directly from the manufacturers. We then coordinate with that robotics company to exchange system data so that the robots are functional. Robot usage may involve loading and unloading as well as applying liquid or powder paint.

Shotblasts and Accessory Equipment

We usually quote the installation only in proposals, but we can source the shotblast, too.

Not Usually IncludedNot Usually Included and Most Likely Require Third-Party Purchasing

The following pieces rarely are part of the systems we provide. However, they are typically necessary to deploy your painting system.

  • Wastewater systems to meet local ordinances
  • In-floor drain systems
  • Automated chemical dispensing systems (integration capabilities)
  • Compressed air systems
  • The building or space and a suitable slab foundation
  • Utilities: electrical, water, sewage, and natural gas service drops necessitate direct interaction with the local utilities
  • All local licensing requirements from the location’s municipality or region
  • Floor pitting and drainage systems
  • Floor surface preparation
  • Fire protection and suppression systems
  • Product racking
  • Burn off ovens or fluidized sand bends to clean off racking
  • Scissor lifts or gantry arm hoists or cranes for lifting items to load height
  • Paint testing equipment to meet paint application specifications

While you don’t need batteries for our systems, we’d certainly be happy to include them! From the lists above, you now have a better idea of all the necessary components for an IntelliFinishing automated painting system.

Learn more by watching our video highlighting our finishing systems for liquid and powder coating or for more information, contact us today.

Changing Course Is Par for the Course

What to Know About Flexibility in Conveyor Design

When companies want to build an automated finishing conveyor system, they usually haven’t scoped the layout. They come to the discussion with a general idea of where they want the system installed, be it an existing building or maybe plans to construct a new one.

In either scenario, the concept of how much space they need is often more realistic when they have experience with an overhead conveyorized finishing system. However, projections based on this refer to traditional conveyor capabilities versus friction-tube conveyors, which are more flexible in configuration possibilities. So, how does the desired footprint lead to the most accurate and suitable layout? Learn how we work with customers to do just that.

Gathering Data Is Key to Designing Conveyor Systems

When working with our team of experts, customers provide us with all the data points about the space and the throughput desired. It’s important to know that capacity drives the size of the system, as it determines cycle time.

Once the cycle, curing, and drying time for a carrier-based system is configured, we then calculate oven sizes. Cycle time also influences the number of load and unload stations, wash design, other pretreatment options, and booths.

Drafting the Layout Is a Collaborative Effort

Typically, we design the draft layout first. After that first iteration, based on the information we’ve gathered, it becomes a collaborative project. Even if your level of experience with conveyors is slim, your feedback is still critical.

Some customers take our layouts and sketch their own versions. In most cases, we go through several revisions based on reviews and discussions. That can lead to new ideas and options for the best, most-optimized layout for the business.

But even when the layout is in the final stage, the budget can still force cuts.

When Layouts and Budgets Don’t Align

Budget Layout Align

In finalizing the conveyor system, you may have to make cuts to get the cost to reflect what you can spend.

For example, even though an IntelliFinishing system can fit in a smaller footprint than conventional systems, sometimes it still won’t fit in the space available. If such an issue arises, companies must make big decisions about space. They can expand the area or decrease the system capacity. In addition, there can be other tradeoffs in the process steps.

When costs begin to impact the usability and value of the system, you have another option. Because our conveyor systems have a bolted-together design, you can build them in phases. Saving costs isn’t the only reason to consider this approach. It can support growth in throughput over time. What’s vital to ensuring this works is to design the final layout and then return to the phased approach, leaving sufficient space.

Layouts Can Change After Purchase and Order

After the agreed-upon design, you still have the option to make changes. Layouts do require some adapting after purchase. The reasons behind that can be outside your control, such as learning there are structural impediments on a site visit. Another issue that pops up often is local ordinance requirements. Other times it comes down to logistics.

Recently, we worked on a project where the site location had sufficient utilities but not enough space for the material flow of items to and away from the system. The only solution was to move it to a different building. Another example is a project impacted by city restrictions on an area the client planned to build. Thus, they had to find a new location, which delayed the project for several months and altered the layout.

Challenges like these occur due to so many factors impacting conveyor design. Changes can even occur after placing the order and may require change order pricing to be issued.

That was the case for a project located near Atlanta. After engineering started, which is the first step in the process, the project engineer and the customer discussed loading and unloading. As a result of the conversation, the customer decided to add a lift at load, making it easier for workers to chain multiple products on the system. That modification raised the product slightly after products were hung.

So, what can you expect in the change process of designing and ordering?

Setting the Course: Expectations and Delays During Design and Ordering

Changes in the system design in the draft and formal quote stages are common. These design changes are much faster to render with budget quotes. Formal layouts and quotes are much more time consuming, sometimes taking weeks. Thus, the more you can work out the design in the draft, the better.

Expect Delays Road Sign

After purchase, design changes are rarer and mostly minor unless we identify a significant obstacle, such as some of the examples above. The consequence of changes can be delays, but not always. It depends on the complexity. There were no delays in the example above regarding adding the lift, as they still had to build the addition to their plant.

Delays in the process most often occur due to weather, local licenses and utilities, and building site construction challenges. Searching for a new location after discovering the one chosen wasn’t suitable can also cause delays. For a couple of recent orders that learned their initial building wouldn’t work, searching for a new building took months! Most post-purchase system modifications are minor and don’t affect system delivery time.

Ready to learn more about the IntelliFinishing powder coating conveyor system layout options? Explore all the possibilities.

Endless Flexibility, Huge Competitive Advantage

IntelliFinishing’s Two-Coat System Offers Endless Flexibility and “Huge” Competitive Advantage for JR Custom Metal Products

Now that JR Custom Metal Products has had a few years to fully utilize their 2017 IntelliFinishing finishing system – plus adding on another Parker Ionics booth for Prime Coating about a year ago – their two-coat automated finishing system (prime and topcoat) operates in full swing for two full shifts per day.

We wanted to know: Is the new system living up to IntelliFinishing’s claim to fame – “The most flexible paint systems in the industry?” Has it fulfilled JR’s needs? To take a deeper dive into how their operations are faring, Powder Coat Facility Manager, Eddie Koehler, reveals how the finishing system solution has given JR a competitive advantage by providing them the ultimate flexibility in production.

A Company Built on Customization

As a metal fabrication company with the word “Custom” in their name, having an operation that is efficient and adaptable is key, especially when working with other manufactured products.

For instance, JR handles a variety of products with differing sizes, materials, powder-coating needs, and cure times. With a part window size of up to 4 feet wide by 5 feet tall by 10 feet long and a capacity of 2,000 pounds per load bar, they process anywhere from small widgets to large, complex weldments.

It is important for curing products properly to create new product recipes based on material factors, such as substrate, part thickness, and the powder’s recommended cure schedule,. Some of the products processed can range from 20-gauge steel up to 200-pound castings. Their thickest material yet? Three-inch steel plates and weldments.

Because JR goes above and beyond to tailor their process to their customer’s needs, they knew working with IntelliFinishing to create the most flexible, custom powder-coating system would provide many advantages.

IntelliFinishing Powder Coat System Delivers the Ultimate Adaptability

Every step that can be automated helps create a more standardized, consistent and quality product, and that’s exactly what JR Custom produces now.

Because each product could have different specifications, it’s important to use the powder paint specifications when performing the processing. For instance, JR monitors their oven temperatures with a DataPaq to monitor their thermal profiles and they meticulously follow the cure schedule provided by the powder supplier – or else the quality could be less than promised. “Powder color can change and vary if you are not at the correct temperature or if you over cure a product,” Koehler warned.

With some products requiring as little as 15 minutes to cure while others taking up to a 90-minute cycle, clearly, cure time flexibility was at the top of importance for JR’s operation. Because of this variability, IntelliFinishing ensured that JR could program plenty of recipes in their system. They currently have over 700 and counting! These recipes provide process consistency for each part type and reduce human errors – further increasing system efficiency, insuring finish consistency and quality, and yet, they can be selected or modified easily via the software HMI system.

Parts Entering Shotblast Booth at JR Custom

At JR Custom Metal Products, they have a “huge” competitive advantage because of their double lane cure ovens, ability to vary the cure time and temperature per product, plus other recipe options including pretreatment options to shot blast products at varying speeds, change the wash stages, timing, or pressure, vary the dry time in the dry off oven, and offer one or two coat finishes. For example, JR can:

  • Run 20-gauge steel and even lightweight aluminum items and 1-inch plate or thicker substrates on the same line.
  • Use one lane of the cure oven as a slow lane for longer cure items and the other for shorter cure times. This allows faster cure time items to pass their slower counterparts and doesn’t hold up the line like a traditional system.
  • Customize speeds through the automatic blast system allowing JR to blast items up to 10 foot long in 2 minutes or less depending on the speed selected through blast.
  • Change temperature, PSI flows, and even stages in their automatic wash process.
  • Adjust duration of time in the dry-off oven or cure oven simply by selecting the appropriate recipe option or by creating new recipes.

With big changes like these, JR accommodates new opportunities they couldn’t before.  “We do not have our own product,” Koehler explained. “We work with many different customers spread across many different industries; we needed a system that offered the most flexibility to process whatever part might come through the door.”

And flexibility is what they got. JR now offers turnkey products from fabrication to finish in expedited timeframes while lowering overhead and increasing quality.

Ready to Explore Creating a Flexible System That Will Transform Your Business?

To learn more about how IntelliFinishing can help elevate your productivity, throughput, and efficiency without sacrificing quality and agility, contact us!

If you’d like to learn more about JR Custom Metal Fabrication, visit their website at www.jrcmp.com.

FAQ2: More In-Depth Answers to Common IntelliFinishing Questions

During the initial stages of our discussions about potential projects, we send our prospects a series of questions to help define the scope of the system we are to design and cost out. We’ve found that many prospective customers also have a set of questions they’d like to know too. In this article, we’ve taken time to answer some of those questions that come up from our perspective to give you a better understanding of what sets us apart. Hopefully, this information will help you understand our abilities and what you should consider when selecting us as your partner on your next finishing system. We’ve broken the categories into three main sections. Click below to jump to that section.

IntelliFinishing Options

How much part weight can an IntelliFinishing System handle?

IntelliFinishing has four conveyor options that are based on the weight per carrier. These include the 500, 1500, 3500, and 5000 series conveyors. The series number corresponds to the weight per trolley allowed. Since most carriers have at least two trolleys (but some systems have four or more), you can multiply the series number by the trolleys to get to the system’s approximate weight per carrier capacity. In general, we tend to use the 500 series for carriers holding up to 1,000 lbs. We use the 1500 series for carriers up to about 6,000 lbs. The 3500 series tends to be used for per carrier weights of up to 14,000 lbs. And the 5,000 series, up to 20,000 lbs and beyond.

IntelliFinishing Conveyor Sizes

How many installations of IntelliFinishing systems are there?

We have over two dozen installations since we started in 2008. Seven installations occurred in partnership with Caterpillar in our first few years, before the technology was made available to other companies. Caterpillar actually patented a number of aspects of using this technology and we, at IntelliFinishing, represent those patents on all systems installed. However, there are actually hundreds of installations of our conveyance system, the friction-tube conveyor by IntelliTrak. This conveyor was invented in Europe over 60 years ago and is solely distributed by IntelliTrak. IntelliTrak is one of our main partners/vendors for the IntelliFinishing systems. They use this conveyor for material handling projects too, so whenever someone just wants material handling, we pass that contact over to IntelliTrak.

Does your conveyor work well with Shot Blast Equipment?

Our conveyor works exceptionally well with blast systems because we can move each carrier at an ideal speed based on the hung parts. We can even go back and pass through the blast window more than once. All of this is controlled by the recipe software. Over time, we’ve also made our conveyor better when using it with a blast as we’ve changed the it to help keep abrasive blast material out of the friction tube and carrier parts to prevent premature part wear. We currently have 4 systems that use shotblast inline on their systems with more systems on the way in process of being built on the way.  

How do you motorize the turning of the friction wheels?

We use either one half hp or one horsepower motors per section of track for most of our conveyor series options. The motors turn either a set of a belts or a chain that encircles the friction tube. Our conveyor motors are off the shelf and extremely easy to swap out if ever needed. Our belts (for the 500 series) are also easy to swap out and there are 4 per motor, but you only need one to operate the conveyor. The rest are just for extra redundancy. The chains rarely need changing but are also easy to slip off and on.

How does the conveyor work with process equipment and do you manufacture your own process equipment?

IntelliFinishing partners with and uses split top washers and ovens from Midwest Finishing Systems. They also provide environmental rooms, when required. The split top ovens in particular allow the friction wheels, which are synthetic rubber, to stay out of the oven and therefore they don’t melt. In fact, the entire conveyor is kept up out of the process equipment/ This saves energy (no heating up the conveyor chain or carrier loadbars), it’s cleaner, and it eliminates contamination that is common with chain based system. An added benefit is our carriers don’t drag heat throughout the facility like most chain conveyor systems. Across the top of the oven slot through which hooks or racking typically travel, we will have an air knife system that helps to keep the heat in the oven along with doors – also that save heat. Ultimately, our designs are far more fuel efficient to operate. We often can project 30–40% in savings over conventional ovens and wash designs.

Software

What does your system software consist of? 

We typically use several Allan Bradley PLC’s to control the conveyor and other pieces of equipment. We use an Industrial software called Ignition to provide the over-riding supervisory software that integrates each PLC. Most industrial control software price per tag, client, and connections. Ignition, in contrast, provides for unlimited tags, clients, and connections, plus it includes a designer function too. Our parent company and our software programmers are Premier level Integrators of Ignition, the highest level possible.

Ignition collects and stores system historical data too. While we do provide a base option for all systems, many additional system features can be custom quoted such as ERP integration and specialized reporting.

The software we use is custom-made for each system based on the system requirements. Generally, all IntelliFinishing Systems have a simple to use interface, a per carrier recipe approach to allow for wide variation per carrier, the ability to monitor the system from any computer on the network, and integration with each piece of process equipment. Most simple monorail finishing systems have nothing in the way of software control. Our software alone will significantly reduce system mistakes, operational time, rejects, do-overs, etc.

With IntelliFinishing, besides the system floor HMI’s, any networked computer with the proper login credentials can see the system and get various reports. Some reports can also be routinely emailed and downloaded in multiple common formats – although this is usually a custom-added feature.

Reputation and Support

What’s your service like after the sale?

Our help desk is available 24/7. Outside of routine part orders, our customers call us on average twice a month. We estimate that 85% of our service calls are resolved on a single call. However, on the rare occasion our team cannot resolve the issue, the techs who worked on your system will assist. We’ve even had some clients call our help desk just to brainstorm ideas, and we love it! We’re here to help however we can.

With the service desk, it is our goal to have a person answer any incoming calls — not a pesky automated robot. However, if our service tech happens to be on another line, an answering service will respond in person and you can leave a message. You will get a call back from the on call technician quickly.

Who owns IntelliFinishing?

IntelliFinishing is a dba of Kasa Companies. Kasa has more than 65 engineers across the U.S. Many of our engineers have a minimum of a dozen years of experience working on high-profile projects in the automotive, airport baggage handling, and finishing system industries. Our IntelliFinishing engineers, project managers, onsite coordinators, PLC and Ignition software programmers come from the ranks of Kasa.

Can we talk to customers or visit some installations?

Yes! We encourage prospects to visit one or more of our present installations. We have no dissatisfied customers! We’re happy to set up site tours to installations that may be similar to your needs or to provide contact information for any of our U.S. installations. Prospects can hear about our reputation straight from other customers. We’re creative with our solutions, put in long hours on installations, and meet our customer’s expectations for timing, performance, and professionalism.

Still think IntelliFinishing might be the right fit for your business?

Contact us by filling out this form or calling 785-309-0356.

Defining Throughput Needs is a Must before Designing a Finishing System

Imagine you’ve been tasked to help feed breakfast to a very large family of twenty people. I come from a family of eleven, so I know what this is like! Your task is to make toast.

Suppose everyone comes to the breakfast table at the same time and everyone wants toast! Great, you say! Naturally, everyone wants to eat their breakfast at about the same time, so you have a relatively short time to make about 40 pieces of toast (at minimum).

Suppose, you only have the old-fashioned two slices of bread toaster available. How long will it take to make 40 pieces of toast if each pair of toast takes, what…3 minutes? Twenty pairs of toast at 3 minutes each is….wait a minute…60 MINUTES! Why, you’ll likely be skinned alive and eaten yourself if you take that long to get toast to each person at the breakfast table – especially if your big brother is one of the last ones to get his toast. Nope…no way…you need a much bigger toaster!

In fact, you probably need to get all the toast done in about 6 minutes or less which would be 10 pairs of toast in 3 minutes and 10 more pairs of toast in 3 more minutes. This means you need 10 of the 2-slice toasters or 5 of the 4-slice toasters, or maybe you could get by with just 2 of the 8-slice toasters, but two of your family members will get their toast at 12 minutes after sitting down. In that case, you have to know which relatives like to eat their toast last…LOL! (For now, we aren’t going to even bring up the tasks of buttering the toast or jelly options, etc.) Good luck! Your family is 20 strong, so likely as not…you can’t afford to own 2 of the really nice 8-slice toasters…so whatever you do…“don’t volunteer to do the toast.” LOL! Enough about me…Haha!

Since finishing systems have ovens, they also could be considered just like those toasters, in some ways. Parts need time to dry off and to cure in ovens. How many parts in how much time defines how big the ovens have to be and ultimately greatly influence the size and price of a system.

Traditional monorail systems tend to run track through the oven at x speed for y time to get to z parts per hour. Power and Free as well as friction-tube conveyors have carriers. Each carrier can carry one to very many parts, but for all intents and purposes each carrier is just like a piece of toast. The number of carriers or pieces of toast per hour define the size of the ovens. They affect other areas too, but much more directly the ovens than other parts of a finishing system.  

If you say you can fit 10 parts on a carrier (at whatever size carrier we want to use and this is often defined by your longest, widest, and tallest parts – but could be based on other criteria as well), and you want to process 1,000 parts per hour on a finishing system, then you need a system that can process 100 carriers per hour. Ten parts per carrier into 1,000 parts per hour is 100 carriers per hour. That’s a fairly fast system, but let’s stick with it for mathematical purposes. 100 carriers per hour means you have a cycle time of just 36 seconds or .6 of a minute.

If you then specify you need 10 minutes in the dry oven this means you need a Dry “Toaster” with about 17 spots in it. Technically, the math is 10 minutes divided by the cycle time of .6 which equals 16.66 to be exact. However, you can’t fit a partial carrier into the oven, so you would round this up to 17.

Now…imagine a toaster with 17 total toast slots! Are you hungry yet?

With an IntelliFinishing System, we are more likely to suggest a system with 2 ovens and 9 spots each or 18 total spots of dry oven. This would give you a little extra capacity to grow into in the future. With two dry ovens with one lane for each (or it could be a single dry oven with two conveyorized lanes running through it), you also have the ability to route carriers that dry more quickly around carriers that dry more slowly.  

Here’s another example for a final cure oven: you might specify you need 30 minutes on average. Thirty minutes divided by the cycle time of .60 minutes means you need 50 total cure oven spots. With our system, we might give you 5 ovens with 10 spots each or perhaps 10 ovens with 5 ovens each, or some mixture of ovens that would give you 50 total oven spots. It would tend to depend on what makes most sense with your available footprint.

Naturally, if you only need to do 10 carriers of parts per hour, the ovens are 10 times smaller! Ten carriers per hour gives you a 6-minute cycle time. 10 minutes of dry time divided by 6 minutes is 1.66 spots in the oven, to be rounded up to 2 spots. In this case, the dry oven is likely to be just one oven with 2 spots for carriers. For 30 minutes of cure time, the system would require 5 oven spots (30/6=5). Now you have some choices…a single oven with 5 spots? Two ovens with 3 spots in one lane and 2 spots in anther? Two ovens with 3 spots each, so you build in extra capacity? All these options would have to be discussed.

So, while throughput also will affect the number of load and unload locations, the number and style of booths, and the size of the wash (or even a blast if used), oven space is where we typically start when laying out a system. Without throughput estimates, it’s nearly impossible to design a system.

One last thing…suppose some family members want lightly toasted bread and others like it nearly black? Oh brother!  But with an IntelliFinishing system, this is no problem (metaphorically). The carrier is given a recipe at load that defines time in the oven for that carrier for the dry off and cure steps. By using multiple lanes of ovens, the fast drying or curing parts can speed around the carriers with slower drying or curing parts.

If you’d like to learn more about our systems, contact me at jclaman@intellifinishing.com or by cell phone at 785-577-9104.

And…let’s skip the toast…I’m probably trying to be on a keto diet.

IntelliFinishing Systems and Part Density Go Together Like Eggs and Bacon, with Racking as the Gravy on Top

Organizations consider many factors when considering a painting or coating finishing system. The capabilities of the system and its design are critical to performance. One area to pay close attention to is maximizing part density. Traditional chain conveyors come up short here, with most requiring 6-inch spacing or more between parts. A flexible solution with smart controls, like the IntelliFinishing System, is a game-changer for part density, with racking as a key ingredient. 

In this post, you’ll learn what part density is, how to maximize it, and how racking plays a role. 

What Is Part Density, and Why Is It Hard to Achieve with Chain-Based Conveyors?

Part density describes the ability to hang parts tightly together on a system. Monorail systems typically have poor density. Items must hang from hooks on the chain, spaced from a few inches to even feet apart. Loaders hang parts as the chain moves by at a set speed. For high-speed operations, loaders must scramble to keep up with the chain. As a result, they often must place relatively small pieces a far distance from one another, which creates big gaps and low part density. 

The only way to increase part density in this scenario is by preloading parts offline onto a removable load bar and then hanging a whole raft of parts at once. It can be challenging with a constantly moving chain system. There is sometimes the ability to stop the chain for loading, but it’s not without unintended, negative impacts downstream. Those impacts can include issues with the timing of pretreatment stages of a wash, travel through a shotblast, time in ovens, the timing of the processing of parts in the paint booths, and of course a drag on total throughput. 

Because these systems literally chain you to a speed with a given amount of time to hang, you’ll constantly fight the part density battle. 

Maximizing Part Density and Stop Chasing the Chain

The solution is to stop chasing the chain! Power and free systems and the IntelliFinishing system have the ability for carriers to halt, receive loads, and rejoin the main line. However, there are differences between these two concerning part density. 

The IntelliFinishing System enables smooth acceleration and deceleration because a VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) motor control for each track section. Power and free conveyors use motors that control long chain sections, each typically having a specific speed. In this situation, a carrier “dedogs” from one chain at one pace and then “dogs” onto another chain at another rate. The effect of this is parts swinging considerably, which has its own set of concerns. 

Why Is Maximizing Part Density So Critical in a Finishing System?

Maximizing part density results in finishing more products in less time. When the finishing time is less, you save on natural gas, electricity, and labor, so your total cost to finish per square inch decreases. 

It all comes back to the ability to pack parts closer, which you can do more consistently with the IntelliFinishing System. Typically, spacing can be as little as a few inches, so you’ll be processing more parts per hour. There’s also almost no part sway. The gains in efficiency can range from 10-30%. But to further optimize, you’ll need to have the proper racking, too.

How Racking Supports Part Density

Racking Example on IntelliFinishing Automated Finishing System

Racking is the key to part density. You won’t have great part density if racking prevents parts from hanging tightly. For example, one of our system customers, JR Metal Fabrication, designed their own racking that greatly maximizes part density. Their setup includes a vertical hanging bar with slots at specific distances. From this, horizontal bars fit within the slots to create a grid. Each horizontal bar has an approximate spur spaced every few inches from which parts hang. The spurs, rails, and hanging bars come in a variety of sizes and arrangements to work with many different types of parts. This rail and slot hanging rack system allows JR Metal Fabrication to maximize part density on their 10-foot carriers. They routinely place from 20 to as many as 800 parts on each carrier.

How Can You Use an IntelliFinishing System for Racking and Increase Part Density?

We don’t provide the racking with our systems. It’s usually the responsibility of the system owner. However, we have a system that allows for greater part density than traditional chain-based overhead conveyor based finishing systems. The racking should be appropriately sized and fitted for the parts you finish and for the size of carrier you need on your system.

Are There Ever Situations Where Part Density or Racking Don’t Matter?

The answer is—they always matter. There may be instances where part density is fixed for some reason. An example is our customer, Prince Hydraulics, which paints hydraulic cylinders and valves. They determined they always hang only eight cylinders vertically per carrier, which is 8 feet long. Each cylinder is about a foot apart.

Cylinders can be an inch or two in diameter to several inches. Their lengths vary, too. Their system spins cylinders using star gears as they emerge from the wash, move through the blow-off device and, arrive in the paint booth in front of robotic paint applicators.

Racking Example on IntelliFinishing Automated Finishing System

In theory, they could hang more than one cylinder. However, the spinning effect would cause lower cylinders to wobble if daisy-chained to the top cylinder. To mitigate this, they choose to go with eight cylindrical products per carrier only. However, they also paint hydraulic valves. When painting valves they hang between 4 to 8 valves vertically per each of the 8 foot hook spaces. In this way they can paint from 24 to 80 valves per 8-foot carrier. Depending on the size of the valves, each vertical rack creates a space between the valves from several to just a couple inches apart. The vertical rail still spins during the blow off and within the booth. Because the valves attach to the rail, the spin is controlled, and the robotic paint program adjusts to finish each valve. The part information at each hanging spot on the carrier is transferred from their ERP where it’s recorded in production when the parts are hung on removable loadbars resting on carts and then transferred to their IntelliFinishing system when the removable bar with parts are being loaded. The part information then is communicated to the robotic program through their IntelliFinishing Recipe system. This technique allows Prince to load up to 80 valves per carrier, depending on the size.

Maximize Part Density with a Full Plate

The IntelliFinishing System is an innovative take on finishing systems. It’s chainless, agile, and has the capabilities to increase part density and capitalize on great racking. All the ingredients come together so your business can fill up on total finish efficiency. Contact us to see if an IntelliFinishing system might be right for you.

How IntelliFinishing Revolutionized Finishing Systems

Like many industry-leading company’s creation story, IntelliFinishing— now a top-tier provider of custom finishing systems — was formed to remedy a serious issue for a major construction equipment brand, Caterpillar. In the late-2000s, Caterpillar encountered difficulties with their multiple chain-based finishing systems. Each was built for a very limited set of Caterpillar parts, and often struggled to keep pace with evolving paint and production specifications. Because of these limitations, Caterpillar was experiencing extensive periods of downtime to build new systems, often taking several years and requiring more plant footprint. These conditions were bottlenecking production, and decreasing efficiency and ROI.

Caterpillar knew there had to be a better way and sought a more adaptable and modular finishing system that could accommodate new products or processes without necessitating entirely new systems.

Caterpillar identified IntelliTrak’s 500 and 1500 series friction-tube conveyors as promising solutions due to their ability to move carriers of parts at varying speeds per track section and their modular design. They then collaborated with Midwest Finishing Systems to incorporate their existing modular pretreatment washers and ovens. Caterpillar envisioned a finishing system that integrated the IntelliTrak conveyor and Midwest Finishing pre- and post-finishing equipment, but there was a catch… It would require a sophisticated and flexible process control system.

Kasa Controls and Automation Fills the Gap to Create a Nimble Finishing System

To create a control system that would allow each carrier to be assigned a unique recipe based on the products hung per carrier, Caterpillar enlisted the expertise of Kasa Controls and Automation. Known for their conveyance automation systems in the automotive industry, Kasa’s recipe driven control system approach ensured that each carrier could have its own distinct set of pre-treatment steps, wash stages or pressures, dry times, and post-treatment steps. Between the smarter control system and the flexible conveyor with modular process equipment, a much wider assortment of parts could be finished with higher throughput on the same system. The systems could also be installed much quicker due to the modularity of the system.

Caterpillar filed approximately 19 patents while collaborating with the three companies to develop, among other things, an even more robust 3500 series conveyor, which could support the six ton weights required for the largest Caterpillar parts. The three vendors then constructed six total systems using the 3500 Series and one powder coating system using the 500 series conveyor for Caterpillar in 2008 to 2012. As these systems were being installed, Caterpillar offered each of the three vendors exclusive rights to market the technology and patents to other businesses in the finishing industry. The vendor team agreed to allow Kasa to market this technology and thus the DBA of “IntelliFinishing” was branded to represent the concept.

With their inaugural non-Caterpillar project for Raytheon, plus other installations for companies such as Hytrol, Greenheck Fans, Boeing, and others, IntelliFinishing expanded beyond their Caterpillar origins, offering custom finishing systems to a diverse array of companies across North America.

Continued Success and Partnerships

Today, IntelliFinishing maintains strong partnerships with Midwest Finishing Systems and IntelliTrak, providing custom finishing systems that include control panels and bespoke programming by Kasa Controls and Automation. Staying true to our commitment to system excellence, IntelliFinishing continues to support the systems installed for Caterpillar in 2008-2012. IntelliFinishing’s inventive and adaptable approach to finishing systems has resulted in over two dozen installations for OEMs and Custom Coaters including for Altec, LoadTrail, Cascade, Hyster Yale, LG-MRI, and others.

If you’re considering a new finishing system and need a flexible system that can handle a wide variety of parts or perhaps a system that may fit in a tighter space, or just want a system that is modular and can grow over time, discover why so many trust IntelliFinishing with their custom finishing systems and contact us today!

IntelliFinishing Simulation: Optimizing Throughput for Large Finishing Systems

IntelliFinishing is a leading provider of automated industrial powder coating and liquid paint systems. IntelliFinishing is a DBA of Kasa Controls & Automation. Kasa (and therefore IntelliFinishing) is an expert in both simulation and emulation not only in paint finishing but also in the industries of automotive, baggage handling, and parcel automation.

At IntelliFinishing, we realize finishing products can be a complex and challenging process, especially when different finishing recipes are involved. Because it’s crucial for manufacturers to achieve high levels of throughput while maintaining quality and efficiency, we developed a state-of-the-art simulation service for IntelliFinishing that helps manufacturers forecast potential bottlenecks and optimize their system’s performance.

How Does the IntelliFinishing Simulation Work?

To ensure its effectiveness, we require a forecast of the quantity of product per finishing recipe that the system will need to process in a given timeframe, usually within a typical shift. Using this data, we design a system model showing the sequence of operation per carrier based on the ideal recipe for the parts hung on that carrier.

Then, to create the simulation, a CAD layout is used as the foundation where each process step is defined by expected recipe variation parameters. Considering loading time, we then introduce variation into the potential recipes. For instance, some products may require a 30-minute final cure time, while others may require a 20-minute or 50-minute cure time, and there may be variations in color or pretreatment for each part.

Other examples of variations include:

  • Pretreatment options like speed through a blast and timing in various stages of wash
  • Dry oven timing and temperatures
  • Color options and booth selection
  • Booth application timing
  • Cure oven timing and temperatures
  • Unload timing

Finally, all variations in the system are taken into account to run the simulation. This allows you to test the effect each variable has on each part of the system, resulting in determining ideal conditions and maximized throughput.

Benefits of Using IntelliFinishing Simulation

There are many benefits to using simulation. For instance, we can identify system bottlenecks by loading various combinations of parts, recipes, and carrier requirements in advance, thereby improving system efficiency and minimizing downtime. Additionally, simulation can help identify ideal manpower requirements based on various throughput volumes and carriers per hour.

For example, it’s possible you may be experiencing a labor shortage, like so many others in the manufacturing industry. However, with simulation, we can predict the impact of the shortage on carriers and products finished per hour. So, say you use manual painting booths and are understaffed, then impact on the entire system and total throughput can be predicted.

Another area simulation could benefit is predicting the ideal number of system carriers to accomplish a desired carrier per hour rate. Often there is a sweet spot for the number of carriers operating on a large system, which — without a simulation — takes a lot of trial and error, relying more on art than science. But with a simulation, you can manipulate the variables in real time, resulting in hard data that shows a bell-shaped curve effect on throughput up to a certain point. Eventually, the system will get overloaded with carriers, causing a bottleneck and total throughput to diminish — and that is when the sweet spot is identified.

By using a simulation, you’ll gain greater efficiency and cost savings through identifying bottlenecks, optimizing manpower requirements, and predicting ideal carrier counts for a desired throughput.

IntelliFinishing: Your Finishing System and Simulation Partner

IntelliFinishing can help customers make informed decisions about their finishing system, ultimately leading to greater efficiency, cost savings, and confidence in your system’s performance.

As a lead supplier of finishing systems that offers superior performance, energy efficiency, and flexibility, you can achieve the desired level of throughput for your finishing system.

Contact us today to see if an IntelliFinishing system can help you achieve greater throughput!

The IntelliFinishing Difference: The Power of Smart Controls in Finishing Systems

In the world of manufacturing, IntelliFinishing stands out by providing customized finishing systems. Our unique solutions are not only efficient and flexible, but also meticulously tailored to meet manufacturers’ specific process requirements.

Our recipe-based smart controls are central to the IntelliFinishing difference, propelling our services beyond industry standards. This key differentiator is paving the way for unparalleled customization and adaptability in manufacturing operations.

Revolutionary Control with Recipes

At the core of IntelliFinishing’s innovation is our recipe-based control technology. It affords manufacturers the ability to tackle an extensive variety of part sizes and shapes, like Prime Powder Coating’s facility expansion that can now accommodate components up to 23 feet long and 4,000 pounds. Despite the demand in variety, our systems deliver meticulous accuracy across every phase of the custom finishing process — from wash cycle to the final cure.

Gone are the days of being confined to the traditional loop of conveyors. IntelliFinishing’s layouts, empowered by our smart controls, allow carriers to move both forward and backward. The strategic use of reverse motion and deadheads significantly cuts down on the space typically lost to wide turns. This not only conserves valuable square footage, but also amplifies operational efficiency, optimizes resource and equipment use, and facilitates capabilities beyond the reach of conventional systems.

Furthermore, our systems’ streamlined operations lead to labor optimizations. Clients frequently report a reduction in shifts and associated costs, bolstering a more economically lean manufacturing environment. In fact, one customer reported reducing shifts from three to one after installing an IntelliFinishing system.

Unmatched Flexibility for Any Industry with Smart System Controls

Our smart control system is the driving force of IntelliFinishing’s distinction. This breakthrough technology bestows unprecedented flexibility within the conveyor system, permitting individual control over each carrier’s movement. It’s this granular level of control that allows your finishing operations to be as varied as the parts you process, maintaining quality and efficiency at all times.

The ability to change speeds in a process or to alter treatment times and stages enables an optimal process per carrier, redefining the usual finishing paradigm of sorting like parts and finishing them on different systems built for those parts to allowing one system to be able to handle all the parts in an as needed and leaner process. Our automated systems have proven their versatility across a variety of industries, from aerospace to agricultural and construction equipment, automotive parts to defense machinery. IntelliFinishing systems are engineered to adjust to the ongoing evolution of products, pretreatments, finishes, and other industrial demands, demonstrating our commitment to innovation.

The IntelliFinishing Difference

IntelliFinishing stands at the forefront of the finishing systems industry, delivering comprehensive solutions that redefine efficiency and customization. Our commitment to a turnkey approach extends from the meticulous design phase through to a seamless installation, ensuring every system is fine-tuned for optimal energy efficiency and intelligent operation. With IntelliFinishing, you’re not just upgrading to a new system; you’re investing in a future-proof operation that can effortlessly adapt to the evolving landscape of manufacturing with a diverse handling capacity, on-the-fly adaptability, and seamless integration into current processes.

We set ourselves apart by revolutionizing traditional finishing systems with our unique conveyor system and smart controls, providing an unmatched level of customization and operational flexibility. This approach can drastically reduce installation time and often creates a smaller system footprint, enabling your operation to pivot and scale with agility.

IntelliFinishing is dedicated to empowering manufacturers with greater control, efficiency, and adaptability in their finishing systems. We craft each detail to precisely meet the dynamic needs of modern manufacturing environments, but with the ability to change the process as needs and requirements change. With IntelliFinishing, you gain a partner committed to shaping the future of finishing, where your specific needs dictate the capabilities of your finishing system.

A great way to learn more about IntelliFinishing is to visit our Videos page or if you’re ready to implement your new finishing system with recipe-based smart controls get in touch today!

Prime Powder Coating featured in PCT Magazine

The feature article in a recent issue of Powder Coated Tough Magazine features Prime Powder Coating. (Read the PCT article here.) Prime installed an Intellifinishing automated powder coating system in their new 45,000-square-foot facility. The system is custom-designed to integrate the latest in automation technology and is capable of handling significantly larger and heavier parts. As with all IntelliFinishing systems, what truly differentiates this system are the intelligent controls integration, allowing unparalleled carrier recipe customization. And because this system was especially fitted for Prime Powder’s new facility, it can also be reconfigured for future growth without experiencing downtime.

You can access the case study on the IntelliFinishing site here.