LOW SCRAP, HIGH EFFICIENCY PAINTING LINE FOR AUTOMOTIVE PARTS

The complete plant layout for this automotive plastic painting line was designed in close cooperation between Moldow and our customer Farplas to optimize workflow and minimize footprint. The aim of the project was to design, install and commis­sion a painting line within a small ground floor footprint and with high level of clean air technology to comply with the best quality standards of a Tier 1 automotive supplier.

– Firstly, I would like to give my regards to the Moldow team, which is very competent in their field. All the way through the process from the idea of the paintshop, its installation and the SOP, we finished the project within a very tight time schedule thanks to the detailed planning from the sale to the technical team and project management of Moldow, says Gökhan Tasar, Production Manager at Farplas.

The line, that is designed for painting of instrument panels and other interior plastic automotive parts, contains all necessary process and support zones and was installed in two levels inside an area of only 37×15 on deck level. A height difference of 4.5 m allows workflow and fork-lift passage under the deck.

Market Leading Low Scrap Rates and Efficiency of >98%

To fully meet customer expectations to the required capacity and to ensure a painting line with low scrap rates, the Farplas installation has been supplied with all the necessary process zones: Load/unload, manual wipe station, deionized air spray, water wall spray booths & flash-offs for primer and top coat, curing oven and cooling zone.

– Thanks to lean production thinking, painting plant technology and spray booth know-how, we operate our Moldow painting line with market leading low scrap rates, and a line efficiency of over 98%, says Gökhan Tasar, Production Manager at Farplas.

To achieve the necessary high-end product quality, the line is designed to minimize air migration and cross contamination between the individual zones. The minimum contamination between the process zones is achieved by an accurately controlled down-draft ventilation system, including individual control of extraction and inlet airflows. The accurate ventilation design further includes air knifes at all conveyor silhouettes between the individual process zones.

Painting of Automotive Plastic Parts

To ensure that the objects are clean and ready for the high quality painting, they are wiped manually after loading onto the conveyor system. Both load zone and the manual wiping zone is efficiently ventilated to allow a dust-free environment with minimum surface contamination.

Prior to primer application, the objects are deionized. By exposing the plastic parts to a deionized airflow and at the same time ventilating the area around the objects, any fine surface dust settlement is efficiently removed before the paint application.

The paint application takes place in the Moldow spray booths with market-leading collection of overspray. The water flow below the conveyor and a water wall behind the items, in combination with laminar ventilation through the integrated filter wall, provide optimum airflow and optimized collection of overspray.

The spray booths are followed by individual flash-off areas where the solvents are evaporated by the integrated down-draft ventilation system.

After the final top coat spray booth and subsequent flash-off, the objects are dried in a gas-fired convection oven.

– Due to the experience of the Moldow team and the project management, we completed the project quickly and smoothly, says Gökhan Tasar, Production Manager at Farplas.