Personnel relief, more productivity and lower unit costs thanks to new concepts - this works not only in large-scale production, but also for smaller companies. However, these often struggle with capacity bottlenecks and staff overload due to manual coating processes - without alternatives appearing tangible. Not least delayed in such cases, the decision-makers in the company are also overloaded and lack the time and energy to find new approaches. It is often not so much the utilization of a machine that plays the central role, as in large-scale production, but rather flexibility, speed and relief for the few employees.
A good example of this is an interior fitter from the northern Black Forest, who processes high-quality woods with 20 employees on 2500 square meters of factory space. These arrange later the interiors of hotels, hospitals, Wellnesseinrichtungen as well as the elevated catering trade a style-fair well-being feeling ambience. The company has recently started using an automatic coating solution - despite an extremely diverse portfolio ranging from wide wood panels to narrow strips. Until then, everything had to be painted and stained at the hand-spray booth. As a result, the surface department was permanently overloaded. But the analysis of the causes and the development of an alternative was repeatedly postponed due to the company's own overload. But then came the moment when the company's leaders decided to make a fresh start - and today they are extremely satisfied with the result, because throughput has doubled, quality has improved and the employees have capacity for additional tasks.
Read all the important details about this automation project in the May issue of Surface Technology magazine or soon online at oberflaeche.de.