Surface World February 2019 SW_Feb_2019_LR | Page 40

OVENS, SPRAYBOOTHS & PROCESS HEATING
Dales Fabrications Ltd choose Haviland
In the spring of 2018 Dales
Fabrications Ltd of Ilkeston,
manufacturer of aluminium
rainwater goods, fascia,
soffi ts and external building
shades, contacted Haviland
with a view to upgrading
their powder coating
facility.
The brief was to provide a pre-treatment
system and powder coating facility with a
specification that could satisfy the industry-
respected approval standards of Syntha
Pulvin, this being the standard that Dales set
to establish the suitability of their third-party
powder coaters. The constraints were to fit
the whole of the plant within a footprint of
144²m, this being a new facility adjacent to
their existing production plant. Over the next
few months various layouts were developed
culminating in the one shown. A concept
incorporating dip tanks with powered
overhead gantry system, progressing baskets
of components through an Okemcoat-4500 ®
wet pre-treatment with oven dry, and from
there, transferred to an overhead conveyor
provided with flight bars to marshal products
into the powder booth and gas fired oven
for eventual unloading adjacent to despatch.
Dales products consists of a number of
aluminium extrusions, large contoured
panels and bracketry, the maximum length
of which to be processed was agreed at 3m.
These products arrive in the WIP area to
unload on pallets and then loaded into a
basket which enables products to be loaded
at an angle to help drainage when passing
from one tank to the next.
A gantry system was designed specifically
for the process connects to the baskets.
Operators can then progress the product
through heated Gardacid ® etch/de-grease,
towns water rinse, de-mineralised water rinse
and then Okemcoat-4500 ® . Chemetall,
part of the BASF group, manufacture and
provide both of the pre-treatment chemicals
relating to this project, Gardacid ® and
Okemcoat-4500 ® . Finally, products enter
a low temperature electrically heated air
recirculated top loading process oven for
drying. Haviland provided the services to
the system, which included mains water,
a demineralised water plant with a holding
tank, electrical services and mains drainage.
Product Marshalling
From the pre-treatment to powder booth a
push/pull overhead conveyor system was
installed, this enabled the products to be
transferred onto specially manufactured
flight bars. The flight bars transferred to the
powder coating booth with the conveyor
mounted centrally at high level.
The booth was designed to be operated with
low level extraction at the rear, provided by a
fabric extraction system. The booth was also
designed to accommodate larger complete
fabrications. Lighting within the enclosure
is provided by LED strip lighting. Operators
have access to both sides of the conveyor.
The powder application system incorporating
a GEMA Optiflex gun.
On completion of the powder coating the
flight bar is progressed to the powder coating
oven, here the conveyor system splits in a “Y”
section to enable flight bars to be presented
in the oven at 90°, this enables the oven hot
zone to be completely filled.
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FEBRUARY 2019
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