Every manufacturing business that survived the infamous “downturn” has increased their focus on operating costs in order to remain viable and competitive. In many markets, however, “remaining competitive” means extending warranties and reducing price. This translates into reducing inventory and controlling what is paid for goods with no compromise in the quality of the goods received.

Coated coil users and those in industrial coating industries are no exception.In response to these pressures, they are demanding shorter lead-times and higher quality, all at a time when competition between coil coaters is driving down the price they can command for their products. This means that coaters have to be more conscious of their cost structure than ever before – without allowing quality lapses in the process.

An East Coast Coil Coater turned to the Profile Correction Module (PCM) and its advanced coating technology to improve cost structure. While they expected paint and coating savings, they also found themselves benefiting from reductions in setup time and quality checks during industrial finishing and other coating projects.

Reduced Setup Time

Our recent blog, “3 Ways PCM Reduces Costs in Aluminum and Steel Coil Coating” revealed:

“The key to implementing the PCM… is to 'drop the pan,' converting it from a paint delivery system into a catch basin and paint return system.”

With the pan no longer responsible for supplying paint to the pickup roller, the volume of paint in the pan no longer had any effect on the outcome of their coating process. With this disconnect complete it was possible for them to tilt the pan dramatically toward the outlet to speed the paint back to the drum. Instead of having a pan full of paint, there was now a pan with just a film in the bottom.

It was this reduction in volume that allowed them to achieve significant paint savings – which equals a significant dollar savings. This was the cost structure improvement that attracted them to the PCM in the first place.

What they did not realize at the outset, was that this significant reduction of paint volume in the system would also result in a reduced color change (setup) time by:

• Reducing pan drain time
• Reducing pan clean-up time
• Reducing system fill time

And this “new way” of coating brought them other desirable benefits to industrial coating and overall coating systems as well… 

Improved Quality

Longer warranty periods require assurance that the quality of a finished good is both within spec and repeatable. This is hard to accomplish in a pan fed system where viscosity variations in the pan get transferred to the strip creating potential issues with the film. The PCM eliminates these issues by metering the paint to the pickup roll, taking the pan completely out of the equation.

In our post, “Add PCM to Reduce Setups, Quality Checks in Coil Coating," we noted:

“…without pan-based edge-to-edge variations, nip pressures can be equalized between the operator and drive sides eliminating film highs and lows on each side of the strip.”

Fewer variations mean more reliable quality, to be sure, but this also creates greater consistency from set-up to set-up, which promises greater consistency from batch to batch.

Be More Competitive

Reducing their cost structure by reducing coating costs and setup times, while simultaneously improving the quality of their product, these guys were able to significantly improve their overall competitive position within their marketplace.

Not a bad outcome for a capital project that took less than one day to implement…

Download our free Coil World Article to learn more about the module and how it can help your business.