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N. 55 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 - international PAINT&COATING magazine

FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGYA New Application Technology witha 3D Part Scanning System and a
Dynamic Reciprocator to Optimise
the Production Time and Quality Levelof Complex Products
Monica Fumagalli ipcm®

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“Innovation” is a recurring

the first company in Italy to install aterm when talking about

new powder coating system developed

manufacturing. Nowadays, for aby Gema Europe. Through closecompany, innovating means to equip

cooperation with Gema’s technical staff

itself with interconnected productionand thanks to the experience of its

systems managed through a perfectoperators applied on last generationinteraction between man and machine

devices, the company has been able

and, therefore, through the operator’s

to optimise its production times while

deep understanding of the newmaintaining a high finishing quality

devices’ features. However, in practice,level, even for very complex-shaped

what does it mean for operators
to radically change their work
concept, and for companies to train
professionals to manage their activities
in a completely different way?

workpieces (ref. Opening photo).

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Figure 1: From right to left: Pier Guido and Alberto Bianchi,
the owners of Verniciatura Bianchi.

A high variety of diﬀerent
products and applications
Verniciatura Bianchi was establishedEspecially for small and medium-sizedin Montodine (Cremona) in 1977. It

companies, there are concerns notstarted as a liquid coating contractor

only about the installation time of anew plant or device, and thereforeof downtime, but also, and perhaps
above all, about the time needed toadequately train their staff to use
the new system. The development ofuser-friendly and easy-to-understandoperating systems is therefore adecisive element for the choice ofinnovative machines and products.
Here below, we present the case studyof a coating contractor, Verniciatura
Bianchi Pier Guido & C. This has been

Especially for small andmedium-sized companies, there
are concerns not only about theinstallation time of a new plant ordevice, and therefore of downtime,
but also, and perhaps above all,about the time needed to adequately
train their staff to use the new system.
The development of user-friendly
and easy-to-understand operating
systems is therefore a decisive
element for the choice of innovative
machines and products.”for products characterised by different
shapes, materials, and types, andthen expanded its business up to
the implementation of a powder
coating plant. “We now treat themost diverse products,” states owner
Alberto Bianchi (Fig. 1), “mainly fromthe heavy carpentry, mechanics,and electromechanics sectors. We
coat products in carbon steel and,more rarely, aluminium and stainlesssteel. We treat components whose
dimensions range from the smallest

Opening photo: Examples of products powder coated by Verniciatura Bianchi.

international PAINT&COATING magazine - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 - N. 55

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Figure 2: Verniciatura Bianchi coats a large number of boxed
sections.

to the largest sizes (Fig. 2). That is why we have equipped our plant tomake the production flow as quick and flexible as possible: the main
bottleneck of companies like ours is the high number of colour changes
required and of different part shapes treated.”

Plant equipment
The coating line is equipped with two pre-treatment systems. The firstone is a 5-stage pre-treatment tunnel installed in 2014 and linked
to both one of the two liquid application booths (devoted to smallcomponents) and the powder application plant (Fig. 3). Its stages are as
follows: phosphodegreasing, cleaning with mains water, cleaning with
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demineralised water,
nanotechnology process,and final rinsing withdemineralised water.
On the other hand,larger components aretreated with a 2-stage
static pre-treatment
plant performing aphosphodegreasingstage with moreaggressive chemicalproducts and a rinsing
stage. Besides the staticbooth for the applicationof liquid coatings onsmall workpieces(1 x 1 x 1 m, Fig. 4),
there is a second booth
devoted to large-sized

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Figure 3: Workpieces entering thecomponents (6 x 2 x 2.5 m). 5-stage pre-treatment tunnel.

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FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

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Figure 4: The liquid application stage in the static booth.

“As for the powder application,” says Bianchi, “we use
epoxy-polyester paints for products intended for indoor use
and polyesters for outdoor components, with a percentage
ratio of 65:35. In most cases, these are one-coat systems; only20% of our products require two coats, i.e. base coat and finish.
Our previous powder plant, also provided by Gema, worked
optimally for eighteen years. In August 2018, it was replacedby the new booth, equipped with an innovative application
system. Our choice was motivated by the need to optimise ourproduction flow and to innovate a department that was using an© ipcm ®

outdated technology.”

Characteristicsof the newapplication
technology“One of the problems
that Verniciatura
Bianchi asked usto solve during thedesign phase of
their new powder
coating booth,” says
Gema Europe SalesManager Gianluigi
Baroni, “was that theline speed was slowed
down by the presence

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Figure 5: A detail of the 3D part scanningdevice.

of workpieces withcomplex shapes andvariable dimensions.
The manual touch-© ipcm ®

manual application cannot guarantee (Fig. 7).”

Dynamic reciprocator androbot: two application systems
compared

There are 3 reciprocators in the powder coating“The main advantage of Gema’s newbooth: in addition to the dynamic one, there

application system compared with theare 2 traditional reciprocators and a robot foranthropomorphic one,” says Bianchi, “iscoating series of identical products (Fig. 8).

the possibility to manage the entrance ofdifficult-to-penetrate edges and subframes, andit provides a thickness consistency level that

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different parts into the booth without being
forced to pre-set the application program forthe robot self-learning activities, starting fromthe workpieces’ hanging mode to ensure
proper spraying. Indeed, with Gema’s newtechnology the components can be hung in
any way, since the scanner detects the parts’geometry in real time and the reciprocator
adjusts its movement accordingly.
Considering that identical products with thesame shape only account for 2% of our entire

61production, this clearly helps optimise ourproduction times.”

Figure 6: The dynamic reciprocator infunction.

Advantages of the new powder
application system

ups required to perfect the coatingof complex elements such as boxed
sections and frames resulted in a loss ofproduction efficiency. Therefore, Gema’s
team developed a solution based on“After almost twenty years of use of the old7
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Figure 7: The post-retouching of
diﬃcult-to-penetrate areas.

coating plant,” states Bianchi, “our operators
were worried about the implementation of thenew system: despite the experience gained
over the years, they raised doubts about thethe combination of a 3D laser scanning© ipcm ®

system, placed at the entrance of thebooth, with a dynamic reciprocatorequipped with 6 guns, which was able toreduce manual retouching operations
by 40%.
“The device placed at the booth’s
entrance is a smart system using athree-dimensional object recognition
laser scanner, which does not only
detects the length and height, but also
the depth of the workpiece (Fig. 5). Eachof the 6 guns located on one side of
the booth (Fig. 6) moves independently
and, based on the detected shape, it
can penetrate inside the product, e.g.
in the cavities of electrical panels, while
keeping the same distance between
its dispensing point and the area tobe painted. This facilitates the manual
retouching operations, mostly limited to20

81Figure 8: The robot.

N. 55 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 - international PAINT&COATING magazine© ipcm ®

FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

correctly, it is not possible to proceed to the next one.
The high simplicity of management has therefore solved our initial
doubts. It also saves our coating staff’s time, because thanks to thescanner system they no longer have to re-set the spraying programs
every time according to the different products on the line.”
The high coating quality level has been guaranteed by replacing the oldguns with new ones featuring a Venturi system and it has been further
improved thanks to the high application efficiency of the dynamic
reciprocator (Fig. 10).
“The system settings were defined by Gema to obtain the best coating
efficiency based on the conveyor speed, the guns’ application capacity,and the workpiece size: therefore, we can now be certain that the booth
is working in the best way possible. Moreover, despite the transition

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from a 6-gun to an 8-gun system, i.e. 14 guns in total, and despite

Figure 9: The control panel of the powder coating booth.

changed: this is a further advantage of our new system (Fig. 11).”Conclusions© ipcm ®

ease of handling a different

the greater production capacity, the consumption of powder has not“We are very pleased with our choice,” states Bianchi. “Gema has

process than the one they

always been a guarantee of quality for us, so much so that when wewere used to. However,decided to replace our old coating plant we contacted their teamGema’s staff was willing todirectly, without assessing any alternative solution. Thanks to theunderstand our concerns

installed system, we have managed to improve our productivity leveland look for a solution

for those workpieces that forced us to slow down our line; at the sameable to reassure us: theirtime, we have simplified the management of the powder application

system is easy to use, notprocess also for components with which we could maintain a good

only in terms of process

productivity level, but with the constant presence of an operator.

management but also ofHowever, what pleased us the most was Gema’s ability to train our staff

cleaning operations. With

quickly: for us, seeing our coating operators happy with the results

frequent colour changesof their work is an extra incentive to strive for the optimisation of our(even every 30 minutes),

production processes through technological innovation.”the cleanliness of the system
The operator performs thisprocess following each stepon the control panel (Fig. 9);
if a stage is not performed© Gema Europe

is very important for us.
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Figure 10: A product detail highlighting
the high quality level of the coating.

The Gema’s system is easy to use, notonly in terms of process management but
also of cleaning operations. With frequentcolour changes (even every 30 minutes), thecleanliness of the system is very important.
The operator performs this process following
each step on the control panel; if a stage is not
performed correctly, it is not possible to proceed
to the next one.”111Figure 11: The 14 guns for the application of powder coatings.

international PAINT&COATING magazine - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 - N. 5521