Blowers and Air Knives prepare Jaguar body shells for painting

The Problem

Effective drying of the car bodies during Jaguar’s special four coat wet flat paint process is critical to ensure good paint adhesion free of intercoat contamination. However, Jaguar’s existing compressed air drying system was proving too noisy and not cost effective.

The Solution

The introduction of a blow-off system removing excess water from car bodies has speeded up production at Jaguar. Efficiency has increased since the introduction of a ‘full car body drying system’ which has removed the need for final manual drying of car bodies before further painting.

High velocity filtered air is delivered through a series of nozzles and air knives mounted on a profile-following system on a moving gantry. No heat is used other than the small amount of natural heat generated by the slight air compression caused by air passing through the blower.

The top surfaces of the car are dried using reciprocating nozzles which move back and forth by a motor and gearbox arrangement. The amount of movement is adjustable to fine-tune the workings of the assembly attached to the profile-following gantry.

Further reciprocating assemblies direct the air to dry the lower parts of the sides of the vehicles. As the car continues to move through the system, a series of flexible nozzles and airknives mounted on a fixed stainless steel tubular framework complete the job. The profile follower in the system keeps the nozzles between 50 and 150mm from whichever car body is passing through, making it possible for the system to be used for different types of Jaguar body shell on the same line. This is a useful feature as a mixture Jaguar Car bodies pass through the system.

The Outcome

A perceived noise reduction of 50%, with the additional benefit of a 90% running cost reduction. This equates to c. 50 pence per vehicle being processed.

Automotive Air Knife Systems

ACI Air Knife Systems are blower-driven solutions that increase production efficiencies and save you significant running costs. Our air knife systems have a uniform slot design that projects an uninterrupted sheet of precisely controlled, high velocity air – thereby supplying a powerful flow across the entire surface of the product being processed.