Now May Be the Perfect Time to Invest in a New Finishing System

Choosing to upgrade your finishing system is always a massive undertaking – and the current period of uncertainty may make it seem even more overwhelming.

However, the current climate may be the perfect time to take the leap.

Why? Let’s dive in.

Why the Push Toward a New Normal Offers Exciting Opportunity

There are several central reasons why, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, investing in a new finishing system may be a strategic and valuable move.

An Upcoming Spike in Demand – And Pricing

First, many companies have put off key projects in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, opting to save money and focus on core aspects of their operation until a more settled “new normal” arrives.

However, this dip in demand has us here at IntelliFinishing, along with our system partners, raring to go.

We’re hungry to keep our staffs busy, and pricing could reflect that.

But this window won’t last for long. As the reopening picks up momentum, backlogs will start to grow once again, and pricing will level out to normal levels. As confidence in this march toward business as usual grows, those who chose to sit it out and go without key upgrades for the time being will be left facing higher prices and longer project installation turnaround times.

Get Prepared to Be Lean, Agile and Productive in the New Normal

In addition to this likely spike in demand coming down the pipe, investing in a new system now can better prepare your company to emerge into the new normal lean, agile and productive.

By closely examining and evaluating your facilities and ways to eliminate waste, you can emerge stronger than your competitors and ready to meet heightened demand.

Waste on finishing can include the outsourcing of finishing – an expensive cost that most “experts” say could be reduced by at least 30% if brought in-house. Further, with an IntelliFinishing System – due to our lower costs to operate – these savings could be over 60%.

Of course, each situation is unique and would require in-depth analysis, but why not check into bringing your outsourcing in-house? (More on this topic in the coming weeks!) You’d also likely see far less rejects and defects, a reduction in transportation costs, faster turn times, less WIP, and better finish quality.

Even if you currently have a finishing system or multiple systems, they are likely to be much more expensive to operate or fall short of optimal needs than a new system.

If you wander by your finishing system and see high levels of work in progress (inventory) stacked around the system due to the requirement to batch like items together because of the inflexible systems you own, you are wasting money and labor.

If your ovens and your chain flood your building with heat because of large part window openings and chain/carrier heat sink transfer, you are obviously wasting natural gas, as well as possibly electricity to fan or cool your facility.

If your current system can’t keep up with production or has a part window that limits your product sales, it’s time to consider something better.

And, finally, if you have or are considering a system that consumes a larger facility footprint than an IntelliFinishing System can provide, you are missing an opportunity to use that space for other revenue producing activities or to have a smaller facility that costs less to build, own or lease.

Why consider a chain-based automated finishing system that is inherently dirty, contributes to finish contamination, is difficult to adapt per part or to innovation, and is wasteful of energy?

Visit an IntelliFinishing System Yourself

Finally, with many employees and leaders working remotely, it could be a prime opportunity to visit a cutting-edge, IntelliFinishing flexible automated finishing system, powder coating system or liquid coating system in your area to get an idea of exactly how investing in one could benefit your operation.

Let IntelliFinishing Be Your Guide

At IntelliFinishing, we’re committed to helping you find the best solution for your unique needs and operation – even if that means not upgrading your system at this time or recommending something more traditional if that’s the best fit.

However, if upgrading to an IntelliFinishing Automated System can bring you real value and efficiency, this could be the perfect time to get to work.

To learn more, contact IntelliFinishing today.

JR Custom Metal Products, an existing IntelliFinishing customer, has once again leveraged the power of IntelliFinishing to elevate overall operations and efficiency. (View the video of the JR Custom IntelliFinishing system.)

JR Custom is committed to competing and succeeding on quality, yet has found a way to ensure that quality is consistent while also promoting new efficiencies. Recently, the company added a Parker Ionics Prime Coat booth to its existing single-coat finishing system.

Overview and Challenges

While JR Custom’s efficiency and throughput were already high as a result of their use of an IntelliFinishing system, installed in 2016, the company was seeking a way to efficiently offer a two-coat powder coating option on their single-coat system due to increasing customer demand for two-coat (prime and topcoat).

JR was already doing a two-coat process with their IntelliFinishing system when needed, but it required parts to move through the entire finishing system track twice, slowing throughput considerably.

The new addition needed to add this prime coat option in-line with the system and be installed with minimal downtime.

The Solution: A Parker Ionics Prime Coat Booth Fitted into the Existing System

To address these needs, JR Custom chose to fit a new Parker Ionics Prime Coat booth into the company’s existing finishing system.

The booth was installed and integrated with the existing recipe software with an insignificant amount of downtime. The booth was positioned directly after the existing dry-off oven. For parts needing to receive a primer coat as part of their recipe, the parts are heated a little longer and hotter than normal in the dry-off oven, then immediately sent into the prime booth while hot. Pre-heating products before they are primed is a process called flocking.

Once in the booth, doors on the booth close behind and in front of the part, so the booth’s airflow system works properly – meaning the booth doesn’t pick up ambient heat from the nearby dry-off oven that could create an updraft that would tend to float powder up and out of the booth.

Integrating a door system to the existing track flow and software was extremely important to make the prime booth function properly.

After being primed, the product can then move along the remainder of the existing finishing track system for the top-coat application, final curing, cooling and unload.

Items that do not require a prime coat simply flow through the prime booth without stopping, as they would have on that section of track before adding the prime booth.

The Result: Added Efficiency and Options

With the prime coat booth added to their existing system, JR Custom has one more service and recipe option for their IntelliFinishing recipe-driven automated finishing system.

“Now, I can offer my customers options on finish longevity,” said Jorge Martinez, Co-Owner. “A single-coat powder finish on my system routinely achieves about a 1,000 hours or more (depending on the powder and other options chosen) salt spray, while my two-coat process can achieve over 2,000 hours of salt spray test.”

“The best part is that we can simply toggle from a recipe that allows for one coat to a two-coat option without any other complications and with a system that maintains a high level of throughput capacity.”

JR Custom’s system flexibility allows for an extremely wide assortment of parts to be finished via the recipe system. They currently have hundreds of recipe options on their system, including options for shotblast or no shotblast, speed within the shotblast, number of times through the blast, pressure settings per stage in their wash, wash stage on/off options, unlimited time and temperature settings for the dry off and cure ovens, and many other possibilities.

Ultimately, the goal of JR’s system is for each type of part to be finished optimally based on its unique cure and finish requirements.

JR Custom’s IntelliFinishing System also saves money on utilities (up to 40%), because the conveyor rides above the ovens. There are no chains or carriers riding through the oven to soak up heat. There are also doors on the ovens to help keep the heat contained, as well as other energy-saving and insulating properties.

Thanks to its IntelliFinishing System, JR Custom Metal Products has a modular system with the ability to expand to meet changing process or throughput needs while also being cleaner, quieter, and much less expensive to operate than a comparable traditional automated system.

Contact IntelliFinishing Today

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

Click here to view the video of the JR Custom IntelliFinishing system in action and if you’d like to learn more about JR Custom Metal Fabrication, visit their website at www.jrcmp.com. 

Are you employing an outdated technique in moving parts throughout your automated finishing process?

Daisy chaining parts, when products are suspended from hooks, can cause swaying of parts, particularly as the parts move through turns, stop or start, or change elevation. That sway can also be initiated by workers who are trying to “catch the moving line” when dealing with chain-based, conveyorized, overhead finishing systems.

In power and free systems, sway can also be introduced when part carriers abruptly stop in place or switch from one chain track to another, particularly if those tracks are traveling at different speeds.

Swaying parts in the process of finishing parts adds up to lost dollars, because it forces parts to maintain greater clearances from each other as they travel through the system to avoid crashing into one another or, worst-case, falling off the line. Crashing into each other can certainly mar the finish, if not the part itself! Falling off the line is also very problematic!

There’s a better way to decrease sway in chain systems and increase part density.

Variable Frequency Drive Controlled Carriers Bring Measurable Benefits

With an IntelliFinishing system, part sway is greatly reduced via the use of variable frequency drive, or VFD, control.

In these systems, the speed of each carrier on a section of track is independently controlled by a small motor that is VFD controlled. This VFD allows carriers to smoothly accelerate and decelerate, reducing the inertial forces that lead to excessive swaying of parts.

An IntelliFinishing system also allows parts to stop for load, unload, masking, blow off, or yes, even the finishing processes. Carriers can also speed up or slow down as may be needed or required per section of track. For example, in a non-process section of track carriers may move at speeds as high as 40 to 65 feet per minute (considerably faster than the fixed line speeds of most chain conveyors), but then slow down to under 10 fpm for a wash process or as they enter an automated finishing booth. The carriers might also index forward in an oven, as another example, in order to achieve a specific amount of time in that oven while other carriers in the oven have other time allotments for drying off or curing.

Racking Method Significantly Effects Productivity

Many users of IntelliFinishing systems choose to preload parts on removable loadbars and then hang the entire loadbar on the system from a carrier that is stopped in place. This avoids having loaders chasing after a moving chain to load the parts. After load, the carrier moves at a variable speed (basically as fast as possible) to the next step or to catch up to the carrier in front that may be waiting it’s turn in the wash or shotblast.

As a result, and especially when combined with more solid frame racking, many more parts can be hung in the same processing part window for an IntelliFinishing system.

For most systems, it takes the same amount of wash spray and time in the oven or booth to process a dense set of parts hung on a carrier compared to a lightly loaded carrier. This means that, when you can get greater part density, you can boost production without decreasing efficiency, which translates to heightened productivity. For a recent client, we were able to calculate a 20% increase in throughput per hour, simply by assuming the capacity to increase the density of parts on an IntelliFinishing System compared to traditional finishing system carrier loads.

The racking system is also a key inflection point on the journey to greater efficiency, and it’s common to question which might be right for your needs. While that will ultimately depend on the parts, in general, racking that locks a part in place is better to minimize part sway, no matter whose conveyor you use.

Of course, in powder coating, grounding through the racking is an important consideration. In this case, racking that has clean connections to the carrier or loadbar will transfer ground best and thus insure a better finish with less powder waste.

Contact IntelliFinishing Today

IntelliFinishing systems are designed with one purpose – bringing you greater efficiency in your part finishing. Leveraging VFD control to reduce part sway and boost part density is only one of the tools we have in achieving that mission.

To learn more, contact us today.

IntelliFinishing is a complete finishing systems provider of automated powder coating and liquid paint systems that offers several unique features and benefits. The number one benefit of IntelliFinishing Systems is that they can paint a much wider range of products than traditional chain-based finishing systems. However, they can also provide unique benefits if integrating robots into the finishing process.

By integrating robots into your paint system, you can increase the quality of your finishes, reduce labor, improve safety from hazardous painting environments, reduce waste material, and increase speed, productivity, and system uptime. Robots are most often used in applying finishes, but they could also be used for loading, unloading, and other processes.

One of our customers, Anthony Wasson, Manufacturing Engineer at Hyster-Yale, explains that they have been using robots in fabrication and welding for quite a while; however, for their recently installed IntelliFinishing system, they used robots to apply a finished powder coating on their forklift parts for the first time.

“Automating the coating process provides many benefits such as reduced labor, consistent quality, improved throughput, control over powder usage, and less waste.” Although, using robots sometimes presents challenges and for Hyster-Yale their biggest hurdle is part programming. “At this plant, we produce a wide array of products so many of the components we are powder-coating have many variants. Programming each specific robot path takes time and requires individuals with a very special skill set,” explains Wasson.

“Even though you can do offline programming, you still need to verify and fine-tune your programming with physical parts.” Luckily, with their IntelliFinishing system, moving carriers in reverse is extremely simple and can be done by one person.

“Our typical process starts with a roughed-in of the program that is completed off-line, next we step through the program with a physical part in teach mode, then run the part in full speed mode without spraying powder, and finally run the part in production mode and apply the coating. The start of each step requires you to move the carrier back to the beginning position. Doing this same task with a power & free conveyor would require much more effort and multiple people. With the IntelliFinishing system we can back up the part to just prior to the booth as often as we want since the carrier can go either direction. You cannot back up with chain conveyors.

Also, with the part continuously moving through the application window, programming requires you to advance the part to reach designated planes. The conveyor then needs to tell the robot when it is clear to move to the next set of points.”

“This ‘stop & go’ feature of the IntelliFinishing conveyor can be controlled for only that section of conveyor and in very precise increments. Whereas a conventual conveyor system would require turning the chain drive on and off which would not be as controlled and could impact other parts of the system.”

Another customer, Bret Albers, Owner of Albers Finishing & Solutions, recalled their experience with using robots for their liquid painting system. He explains the biggest benefits of using robots are the consistent quality and quicker throughput, “The end result is minimal time in the booth without sacrificing finish quality.” Additionally, he explains that the IntelliFinishing system integrates extremely well with the robotics, which makes it easier to operate, control, and visually see what’s going on with the flight bars.

Like Wasson, Albers also recalls the biggest challenge of using robots in finishing is programming time and testing of new products. Regardless, however, the consistency the robots provide is unmatched and when the expected volume of similar parts is worth the programming time, the outcome is higher quality finishes with less cost per part and in less time and labor.

We have also installed IntelliFinishing systems that use robots or robotic machines for loading, unloading, and in other finishing processes. Using a friction-tube conveyor allows for carriers to literally “stop on a dime” or travel forward and backward with a consistency that is very useful when integrating robots that do any sort of repetitive activity.

If you’d like to learn more about having a new finishing system using robotic application of powder or liquid paint, contact John Claman at jclaman@intellifinishing.com, 785-309-0356, or check out our videos of the Hyster-Yale System Video or the Albers Finishing Solutions & System Video or view all videos.

Ovens that leverage infrared light, or IR ovens, are commonly used in finishing systems to speed up the cure time for a range of finishing processes, including liquid paint and powder coating.

However, IntelliFinishing automated finishing systems don’t typically use IR ovens. Why is that?

IR Ovens Excel under Specific Conditions

Infrared heating of parts is best when the ovens can “see” all part surfaces. Additionally, the substrate metal needs to be thin enough to transfer the heat through to the unseen (by the IR oven rays, at least) geometries of the parts.

As a consequence, you’ll often see IR ovens used for parts that are thin and have wide areas of flat geometry, such as sheet metal items.

Imagine sheet metal designed to cover appliances, for example. If the IR rays beamed at the parts can reach all (or nearly all) of the surface, the IR oven can heat the product up sufficiently to cure the part in both liquid and powder applications.

However, if the parts have boxy enclosures, turns or simply complicated dimensions, IR may not be able to heat up the parts uniformly. While this may not be a problem for some liquid applications, as liquid usually cures on its own even if not fully heated to the recommended force cure temperature or time, issues can arise depending on where the “undercured” areas are.

Further, powder finishes are much more finicky and require heating to a relatively hot temperature and for a specific amount of time. Any powder that is undercured is simply not going to form into the proper coating and is subject to failure and separation.

So, if you have flat panels to paint, large, visible surfaces or just relatively thin parts that are able to transfer the surface temperature into the shadowed crevices of the part enough to cure them appropriately, then an IR cure oven should certainly be considered, potentially in conjunction with a convection oven.

IntelliFinishing Finishing Systems Are Geared toward a Wide Variety of Parts

So, with all that said, why hasn’t IntelliFinishing done many systems that use IR cure ovens? It’s certainly not because we view IR ovens as inferior – it’s because our finishing systems are best utilized by companies that have a wide variety of parts and, therefore, require different recipes per part.

Part-coating systems that utilize IR ovens are usually (although not always) set up to handle a narrow range of part types and geometries. If that applies to your operation, you can probably get by very well with a monorail, chain-based overhead conveyor. In other words, a traditional system will work.

It will also require a lower initial investment than an IntelliFinishing System. This is why, in discussions with prospective customers who need to finish widget-type products or lots of flat panels, we recommend a more traditional system unless they have other process needs that demand recipe controls or space-saving layouts.

Finally, IR curing isn’t predictable in the way a convection oven can be. In order to determine exactly how long a part must cure in an IR oven, the specific parts must be tested in actual IR ovens or confirmed as viable by another organization that cures very similar parts.

So, no matter what IR oven supplier you are talking to, you should inquire about the capability to take your parts into their laboratory and figure out the ideal cure timing and oven specifications required.

The bottom line is this – IntelliFinishing systems are ideal for operations needing to finish a wide range of parts with different recipes, while a more traditional system with IR curing capabilities could be perfectly fine for applications without such variety.

To learn more, contact us today.