On February 21, 2020, in Wieluń, the SaMASZ paintshop received a title of the Paintshop of 2019 in the first plebiscite of this type organised by The Association of Industrial Coating.
During relocation of its factory in 2018, the company SaMASZ invested in a modern powder coating paintshop. ‘We knew that production capacities of the paintshop at the old factory were too small and would not be sufficient at the new site,’ says Leszek Szulc, Technical and Production Department Director at SaMASZ. ‘Therefore, we organised the entire coating process from the scratch, fully using opportunities offered by the new factory.
The modern paintshop with mechanical surface preparation covers the area of 3 out of 15 aisles at the production hall, i.e., 5 thousand m2. Three main technological zones can be distinguished here, forming one coherent whole:
Surface preparation starts with mechanical cleaning, which from March 2020 is executed on one production line with suspended transport, Power&Free, through a throughfeed machine to abrasive blasting processing. A new blaster that replaced three previous chamber jets consists of 12 double disc turbines with smooth adjustment of the running speed, of 11 kW each, and is equipped with an automated system for replenishment of the blasting agent, a blow-off station, a filtration system and an automated element detection system.
Blasting results in a uniform structure and removes contaminations that formed on the material surface, such as corrosion, scale, coat, etc. Then the elements are suspended in the loading lifts and transported to the area of chemical surface preparation in the Power&Free system.
The process of chemical surface preparation with cataphoretic coating is conducted in 12 tubes with dip baths and an oven for heat curing of elements. The main process stages are: alkaline degreasing, zinc phosphate conversion coating and cataphoretic coating. Three automated loading and unloading portals are installed above tubes, which take over a beam from the Power&Free system, transport beams within the dip tubes area, and then transport the beam back to the P&F system. After leaving the wet zone, the details are transported to the oven, where they are heat cured at two temperatures, depending on a process: for the zinc phosphate conversion coating alone
it is 110 degrees C, and for the zinc phosphate conversion coating with cataphoretic coating
it is 220 degrees C.
After heat curing the details are transported to a cooling buffer preceding powder coating, and then to one of two powder coating booths. 95% of details are delivered to the automated GEMA booth with an innovative OptiCenter OC02 system. The system enables easy management of the powder and a quick and dust-free change of the colour. With a close circuit of paint, the dust formation during coating and cleaning was eliminated. The coating process ends with powder polymerisation in the 35-meter-long tunnel oven. At the outlet from the oven, the details are delivered to the cooling buffer, where they are unloaded with 2 unloading lifts.
‘With this investment we increased our capacity and quality possibilities, when compared to the old plant. From the very beginning, the paintshop has been operating on 2 shifts, but we are slowly approaching to the end of capacity of two shifts, and we are able to do that in less than two years. When it is necessary, we will start the third shift, and also consider expansion. Additionally, as one of the few companies in the Podlaskie Voivodship, we ensure coating of our machines using the cataphoretic method, meaning that resistance of our machines to weather conditions improved three times,’ ends Leszek Szulc.
