Fuel Tank Painting Costs Reduced With Airknives
The Problem
Oxford Automotive Components, fuel tank manufacturers for the automotive industry, supply manufacturers such as Honda and Rover, have installed an ACI Air knife System for use in their paint line process.
The main problems experienced by Oxford Automotive involved the inability of the existing process line to remove the surface moisture from fuel tanks. With the drying oven set at 150°C, the fuel tanks not only still remained wet (mainly on the underside of the product) before entering the spray paint area, but also became extremely hot. Both of these characteristics led to an unacceptable level of paint being used on each tank in order to achieve an acceptable level of paint finish quality.
The Solution
Installing an Air knife drying system on the line immediately after the wet cleaning process, allowed all of the excess water to be completely removed before the tank enters the oven. This has allowed the oven temperature to be lowered to 95°C which in turn has meant that the tanks reach the paint shop completely dry and much cooler. As the applied paint is water based, this allows for far better paint coverage and therefore much lower consumption levels.
The Outcome
A saving of over £1000.00 per month has been achieved in paint consumption savings. Additionally a considerable reduction in running costs of the oven has also been achieved as well as an increase in overall throughput rate.
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.
