Today's R&D for tomorrow's markets: Highly productive powder coating of coils and blanks

Abstract

The coating of coils and blanks with powder combines the material-specific benefit of the solvent free and high-quality powder coating process with the procedural advantages of coating sheet metal before forming it into three dimensional parts ("precoating"). However, so far only a very small percentage of the steel and aluminum coil and blank production volume is coated with powder. Most of it is processed in the architecture and buildings sector. In order to overcome the present limitations of powder coating in the coil and blank sector, a publically funded R&D project has been carried out jointly by the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research IPF (Dresden), the Institute of Industrial Manufacturing and Management IFF (University of Stuttgart), the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA (Stuttgart), and the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU (Chemnitz). The project work has resulted in an innovative technology for highly productive powder coating of coils and blanks. This technology includes the coating powder system, the powder application technique, the curing process, and the sheet metal forming process. This presentation will show that space, energy, and material saving powder application techniques combined with line speeds of more than 100 m/min will not only help saving costs but promise additional market potential in the future