Automated Powder Coating System Case Study

COLORFAST AUTOMATES POWDER COATING SYSTEM TO EXPAND CAPACITY

ABOUT COLORFAST

ColorFast provides custom powder coating for a variety of manufacturers in the Oklahoma City area. From motorcycles (Ridley Automatic Motorcycles®) to warehouse moving equipment (Roller Industries™), ColorFast knows what it means to be a great supplier. 

Through the years, ColorFast's small batch operation began facing challenges:

• items became bigger
• volumes became larger
• turn-around times became shorter

Spray Tech Industrial Solutions provided: 

• Valuable Communication 
• Part Volume 
• Part Projections 
• ROI 
• Powder Coating System Design 
• Pre-Treatment 
• Vendor Selection

POWDER COATING SYSTEM DESIGN 

ColorFast is a job-shop powder coating company focused on quality products produced in a timely fashion. Jay and Clay Ridley have been in manufacturing and coating for years. Although they are already good at what they do, they turned to Spray Tech Industrial Solutions to help identify options for a new in-line powder coating system. Using the information gathered and industry experience, Spray Tech Industrial Solutions pulled the right resources together and designed an industrial powder coating system that is extremely professional and functional. 

Batch System Before Newly Designed Automated Powder Coating System

ColorFast was operating with a manual powder coating system that used a powered enclosed track conveyor to pretreat and coat the products. They used an offline batch oven to cure the parts. This system was running at maximum capacity, so they needed to look at other powder coating system solutions to meet or exceed customer expectations.

"The volumes began to get larger. We became completely overwhelmed with trying to do this on a small line we built and in a batch operation," stated Jay Ridley. 

That's when they turned to Spray Tech Industrial Solutions.

Spray Tech worked alongside Jay and Clay to determine the part window or "box" that would best accommodate their versatile needs. This is based on the maximum dimensions of the parts they needed to move through the system.

Next, Spray Tech's powder coating experts looked at the volume in the near future. In addition, they looked at future projected volumes. This allowed Spray Tech to create a range in line speed to accommodate the demand now; as well as, providing flexibility for the future.

After line speed was established, Spray Tech was able to generate a layout that lead to a budgetary number for the automated powder coating system. The only thing left to determine was the powder coating application equipment. Did the client need fixed powder coating guns or oscillating powder coating guns? How many guns and what other options did they need?

Spray Tech Industrial Solutions developed an industrial powder coating system that gave them the most control and addressed quality issues with powder coating film thickness. Spray Tech Industial Solutions used simple calculations to determine the number of powder coating guns and travel for the gun movers or oscillators. The end goal was to provide them with the perfect lap at the end of each complete cycle, using the best spray equipment and coatings options available from our team of suppliers, GAT Systems and Parker Ionics.

"Whenever we have activity in a given market, we try to meet as many people as possible. It was because of Spray Tech's relationship with Jay and Clay, that I was introduced to them." Aaron Hughes, Executive Vice President, GAT.

For more information on how we can do this for you, please Contact Us.

"It's a game changer for Jay and Clay, long term, to be able to do a completely different operation within the operation they already had. That's the exciting part for us!" Jeff Behymer, Spray Tech Inudustrial Solutions

Spray Tech Industrial Solutions, Inc. is a distributor of industrial finishing systems and equipment. Spray Tech Industrial Solutions specializes in the following: liquid paint, powder coating, sealants and adhesives. Electrostatic and liquid coating are their specialty which allows them to help transition liquid painters to understanding powder coating. Spray Tech Industrial Solutions provides everything from turnkey systems, electrostatic guns, plural component mixing, replacement parts to wears and spares. Spray Tech Industrial Solutions’ corporate office is in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and a regional office in Louisville, Kentucky.