Completion in record time
The new hall, including the painting technology, was built in just seven months. Meeh sent a lead fitter to Saint Vith to carry out the installation together with the Huppertz fitters so that they could get to know the plant from the ground up. The time window was tight, because the new plant was to go into operation as early as mid-November 2019: "That was a real tour de force," say the Huppertz in unison. "The new plant is virtually the luxury version of the previous technology," says Karl-Heinz Huppertz. While this was housed in an area of 1500 m², the area has now tripled. To accommodate the large components, the crossheads are 14 m long instead of 10 m; the maximum dimensions of the components are 14 m in length, 2.5 m in width and 3.1 m in height. "In the pretreatment booths, automated wash rims travel longitudinally over the components so that they are completely rinsed and finally provided with a chrome-free passivation," explains Dietmar Damm. After filtration by means of bag filters, the liquids are returned to the storage tanks via a pump sump.
All process media, i.e. storage tanks for pickling, phosphate, passivation and the circulation rinsing tanks, are located in an aisle between the modules. Through this pretreatment, the surfaces at Huppertz achieve the corrosion protection category up to C5, if desired.Then the workpieces are moved via the electric transverse platforms into the adhesive water dryer, which is connected to the baking oven via bypass flaps. In this way, the waste heat from the oven is transferred to the dryer, which noticeably reduces operating costs. The bypass dampers ensure constant air balance and constant temperature control," explains Dietmar Damm. The curing oven has five traverse positions so that each component receives the dwell time appropriate to its material thickness. To the left of the dryer is the manual powder booth with floor extraction and air supply via the booth ceiling. Here, metal construction expert Huppertz has integrated two lateral lifting platforms with depth adjustment axes, which make coating considerably easier for the workers, especially with large components.
