Maschinenfabrik KMF produces hydraulic cylinders for the agricultural and construction machinery industry. A high-quality surface coating is crucial for robust corrosion protection of the cylinders. Since KMF wanted to switch from manual to automatic coating, they were looking for a new coating system. It had to be capable of providing the components with closed and smooth surfaces, uniform coating thicknesses and a high gloss level. The decision was made in favor of a modern wet painting system with application, metering and mixing technology. The workpieces travel to the painting booth in a cycle time of 7.5 minutes. There, a robot with an AirCoat gun applies the high-solids paint as a primer. The paint has a high solids content. As a result, consumption has been greatly reduced. Thanks to electrostatics and homogeneous atomization, a very high application efficiency with little overspray is achieved for the large-area hydraulic components. Thanks to the changeover to the new system, KMF can now paint the same volume in 2-shift operation instead of around 1,500 cylinders a day in 3-shift operation.
Read the article on this in mo 09 2022 or online here!