Painting
About Us > Industries
In the automotive industry, automotive coatings and the processes use advanced technologies capable of producing high quality appearance and durable surfaces and meeting environmental regulations. Process control technology that directly ensures consistency and improves vehicles’ paint finishing quality which is vital in the automotive business. Automotive paint is a vehicle paint that is used for protection and decoration purposes. The aesthetics of the vehicle is a key factor in determining the purchase decision of consumers. Nowadays, water-based acrylic polyurethane enamel coating is widely accepted as standard vehicle paint because it reduces the environmental impact of coatings.
In modern automotive manufacturing plants, there are several paint layers and paint processes are applied. The general guideline is to obtain the total thickness of paint layers of about 100 micron meter which is equal to 0.1 millimeter. There are several steps in paint application preparation to ensure consistency of the paint. These paint layers include cathodic e-coating, primer, base coat which is applied after primer, clear coat to give a glossy and transparent look. Most importantly, the top layer of clear coat is able to withstand UV light to give long lasting vehicle paint life.
Cathodic e-coating is the process of dipping the whole car body into a coating solution tank. An electric current passes in the tank and car body to give protection to the car body with coating. Cathodic e-coating protects the steel part of the car body from corrosion
Primer evens out any irregularities of the first layer
Base coat gives the main colour to the car body
Clear coat is applied last as top coat to protects the car body from UV radiation, dirt and snow
Manufacturing cost and maintenance cost is directly related to the quantity and quality of the paint coating on automotive finishing. Right amount of paint viscosity is the determining factor of good quality paint. All of the paint performance factors from colour matching, chemical resistant to coat film building are closely affected by the coating viscosity. Viscosity concerns about adherence property of coating and the thickness of coating. Furthermore, coating viscosity also affects the process parameters setting coating speed, pressure and flow rate of coat spraying process.
Paint spraying application, that gives control of good painting thickness and distribution, widely utilised in modern automotive coating processes. Spray application uses spray nozzles to atomise the paint for the spraying process. Viscosity of paint varies with different ranges of environment temperature so the temperature variations must be in control to avoid quality issues and to maintain the consistency of paint coating. The coating film becomes uneven if viscosity is too low.
Application of these coatings is performed inside spray booths that consist of air handling systems for cleanliness, humidity, temperature. It is essential to incorporate a filtration system for dust control and ensures the cleanliness of spray booths. Large air flow is required to capture the suspending paint particles and transport these paint particles to the collection end in the underneath of the booth. Besides the coating layers mentioned above, final finishing paint quality and overall efficiency of coating process greatly depend on the efficiency of the filtration system, air flow rate, direction of airflow inside the spray booths.
Automotive industry uses paint industrial fans in different areas. One of the most important areas is the painting booth. Depending on the process stage, these fans are used for injection, suction or recirculation of air, both at high or room temperature. We find three main different stages in the following process:
1. Pre-Treatment and Air Preparation
2. Painting Booth
3. Furnace
Most industrial paint booths, truck paint booths, and entry level automotive paint booths use the tube-axial fan as the fan of choice for the exhaust side of the airflow. This is mostly due to the low cost of the hardware and low cost of the installation. Ferrari industrial fans are one of the best choices among drying oven manufacturer.