| Sometimes a do-it-yourself project will only take you so far. For almost nine years, TWF Industries (Barrett, MN) used a self-manufactured spray booth for its powder coating operation. It didn't reclaim paint, and it wasn't designed for quick color changeovers. It performed one basic function - keeping the powder within the enclosure. "We were doing contract work, and we just needed a booth," says Tom Furrer, TWF's president and owner. "Prior to that, we were actually using our liquid booths." That changed last year when TWF Industries was awarded one of its largest finishing jobs - thousands of "idlers" for gravel conveyors. Idlers are interior components that hold the conveyor's rollers in place. When he received news of the job, Furrer turned his attention to his equipment. The spray booth that had worked well enough for smaller lots of sheet metal and plastic parts was no longer acceptable. The company needed powder-reclaim capability for its new commitment. In addition, a new spray booth would allow TWF Industries to pursue smaller custom coating opportunities where quick color changeovers are key. "You either have to update your equipment, or your company won't grow. This big job spurred us to improve our finishing line," Furrer says. In November 1997, TWF Industries upgraded with a Vortech power-coating booth from ITW Gema (Indianapolis). The booth features eight automatic spray guns and integrated collectors that require no explosion venting and are engineered to reduce the overall risk of color contamination. | Furrer says his employees particularly like the quick-change capability when switching from reclaim to spray to waste mode. With the removal of a panel and the bypassing of the Vortech's cyclone module, the unit is ready for those short or intermittent runs where greater color changeout flexibility is required. Although the company continues powder coating the conveyor parts, it also powder coats smaller product runs. Furrer says the changeover from one color to another is now 15 minutes, instead of almost an hour. He adds that powder coating four colors a day is not unusual. "We will really put this booth to the test in the future when we go to the shorter runs that call for faster color changeovers." He says. The large-volume job of powder coating the conveyor parts is scheduled to end in late 1998. The next step for TWF Industries is improving its product flow. For example, the oven is capable of handling the conveyor's line speed of 6 feet per minute, but the oven must be purged after each color changeover. The cleanup process is laborious and lasts almost 30 minutes, according to Furrer. And, if the oven is not purged, the finishing crew runs the risk of color contamination on the following run. TWF Industries will soon purchase an infrared oven that will gel the powder after it exits the paint booth and before it reaches the curing oven. This will greatly improve the final finish. Furrer says that his 35-employee shop will now turn its attention to becoming as efficient as its new paint booth. "Racking and masking are a few of the important areas where we can now concentrate, "he says. |
