As with virtually all decorative industrial coating operations, color changes are a fact of life for coil coating systems. In our recent blog titled, “6 Ways Changing Colors Can Disrupt Coating Technology,” we discussed the many issues associated with frequent color changes. In this segment, we’ll look at a new way to address those issues.
Introducing the PCM
For more than 10 years, we have been helping coil coaters to improve their results through innovative process control strategies. We have gained an understanding of the problems associated with frequent color changes, and in response developed a new device called the Profile Correction Module (PCM).
You can learn more about it in our blog titled, “How to Best Manage Frequent Color Changes in Industrial Finishing."
How the PCM Works
The PCM makes a two-roll reverse coater behave like a three-roll reverse, center nip-feed coater. Basically, its unique shape and position form a gap across the face of the pickup roll that meters paint to the applicator roll as needed. This is explained in our webinar, “The Profile Correction Module – A New Approach to Coil Coating." The PCM improves your coater performance in three distinct ways:
1. Reducing Pan Volume
Because of this new, less critical function, the pan can be modified, angled, or whatever is required to drive the paint directly to the outlet to minimize the time the paint takes to get back to the drum. This takes the volume in the pan from a “fill” to a “film”! Moreover, while the pan is being reshaped, the surfaces can be formed to make it easier, and therefore faster, to clean.
2. Saving Paint
This represents a major cost savings, but also improves the color change process by reducing both the drain time at the end of a run, and the fill time at the end of a color change. Combined with the pan changes, this can both simplify and shorten the color change cycle.
3. Improving Quality
This minimizes the time that the paint is exposed to the process and completely eliminates the swirls and eddy currents that form in the pan in traditional two-roll pan-feed systems and create temperature (and therefore viscosity) variations across the face of the pickup roll. As a result, temperature based edge-to-edge variations are reduced or eliminated, the applied film is more even and consistent, and finish quality is improved.
Too Good to be True?
These benefits accrue to create a much stronger competitive position for your business.
Seem too good to be true?
Perhaps.
But sometimes, finding the weak link in your process (the pan feed) and correcting it, can realign your business with your marketplace to produce remarkable results you never thought possible.
Is your business in need of this kind of change?
Watch our free PCM Webinar to learn about how this innovtive technology can help your business.
