Smarter infrared curing for compact powder precoating-lines

 
Within the scope of a european project, a new powder pre-coating technique, modified powder coating materials and an adjusted pretreatment technique for aluminium substrates were developed. They allow fast and compact powder application as well as melting and crosslinking processes with process speeds of up to 1 m/s instead of the state of the art maximum speed of about 0.25 m/s. The whole process time where reduced by more than 30 % compared to piece good coatings. Operating and investment costs where reduced clearly beside the advantages of high process speeds and compactness of the application technique. The duration of the thermal treatment where reduced below 30 s. This process gives the opportunity for a just-in-time production due to the possibility of a fast colour change. The research and development works started from laboratory scale, reached pilot scale and ended in a production-like scale presented in a coil coating line in the Belgian Liège.