How To Choose The Right Powder Coating Equipment

How To Choose The Right Powder Coating Equipment

Which Powder Coating Equipment Package Is Right For Me?

When choosing a powder coating equipment system for your business, keep these three pieces of advice in mind:

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1. Always buy a system large enough to coat what you need

2. Don’t cut corners on your booth and oven

3. Always use a professional powder coating gun

The Bigger Your Powder Coating System Is, The More Business You Can Take

Before deciding on your new equipment, ask yourself these questions:

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1. How large is the largest part I will powder coat?

2. How many parts do I need to coat per day?

3. How many colors will I be spraying?

4. How much space do I have for new machinery?

We’ve done countless hours of follow-up with our customers and they all say the same thing: “I wish I’d gotten a bigger system.” You can always do small parts in a big system, but if a part won’t fit in your oven, that job – and the money – go elsewhere. And if you are manufacturing your own parts, you don’t want to build parts you can’t fit in your own powder coating equipment.

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Remember: Even if all you do is small parts, a larger system can double or triple your production capacity.

If you only need to coat a few small parts every day (whether that’s for rims for your automotive repair shop, manufacturing prototypes, or motorcycles and ATVs) we recommend our Wheel Wizard or Adrenaline package. These packages have a smaller equipment footprint and can accommodate a number of small batches every day.

Q: Why Buy A Powder Spray Booth Larger Than The Oven?

It’s best to have extra width and/or length in your spray booth so your coating operator can get around the parts easily.

If you will primarily be working with car frames, lawn furniture, large batches of small parts, or would like to open a powder coating job shop, we recommend our Job Shop or Auto-Customizer package. Both these professional packages are sized for serious throughput while still saving you some floorspace.

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For those of you who have real powder coating needs – handrails, fences, large batches for production – the Industry Standard and the Coating Entrepreneur are large industrial systems designed for maximum efficiency. The Industry Standard will let you coat nearly everything your local customers might need, while the Coating Entrepreneur is sized for maximum capacity. If outsourced coating is costing you a fortune, then these packages can turn your expenditure into a real money making enterprise.

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All our powder coating ovens and spray booths use a modular design, so down the road you can increase the size of your system. Still, before you buy, make sure you have a good idea of the largest part you’ll need to powder coat and get a powder coating oven and spray booth to fit.

Starting a Powder Coating Business?

Read This Before You Buy Anything

No matter where you want to start your powder coating business, there are codes and regulations your equipment has to meet before your code inspector will let you operate the machinery. All of our equipment – powder coating ovens, powder spray booths, powder spray guns –meet those national level codes. Hobby systems don’t. So what does that mean for you? It can mean fines, delays, lost days of work – a lot of hassle and a lot of wasted money.

Q: Why Is A Constant Oven Temperature Important

Powder requires a constant, consistent temperature to cure properly. If part of your oven is cold, then the powder won’t adhere or won’t coat at all. If the oven is too hot, then the powder can overcook, burning it or making it brittle. For the best looking and strongest finish, you’ll need an oven that can provide a constant temperature throughout. (Hint: Ours do.)

If you are serious about starting a powder coating business, then your equipment has to consistently produce a quality finish that your customers are happy with. A hobby system or worn-out used equipment package won’t produce quality results.  A used system may not have a consistent temperature throughout the oven (a must), and may take forever to get to temperature. Worse, it may not even start at all. What will your customers do if your finish is poor or their parts are late? They’ll take their business somewhere else.

Why worry? Get powder coating equipment that works right every time

Our powder coating ovens and spray booths meet national codes. Our equipment is built in the US using top-of-the line components. If there ever is a problem, we’ll help you through it, with one of the most experienced support staffs in the powder coating industry.

If You Are In Business For Yourself, Always Use a Professional Powder Gun

Lots of people want to save money when buying their equipment, but buying a cheap gun can come back to haunt you. Powder coating is applied by charging the powder so it will stick to the part before you cure it. If your gun doesn’t work, you can’t coat. If you can’t powder coat, you can’t make money.

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We hope you buy from us – but no matter who you buy from, make sure you get a true professional powder coating spray gun. Don’t spend a few hundred dollars on a hobby-level gun that will only work for a week or two. Don’t get stuck with a no-name gun you can’t get serviced. Buy a name-brand gun from an established company. Any powder spray gun from Wagner, Nordson or Gema works well – and if something goes wrong, you can get replacement parts quickly.

Every Package We Sell Comes With A Professional Powder Gun

When buying from us, you won’t have to worry – all of our powder spray guns are provided by Wagner, one of the most reputable and service-oriented companies on the market.

Let Us Help You Choose The Right System For You

We’ve already done most of the homework for you with our powder coating equipment packages. Using our most popular sizes for the most common items, you can get your business started quickly. However, if you don’t see the size you need, just ask us. We have hundreds of products sizes available, including wash stations, blast rooms, pretreatment stations and automated finishing lines. And if you need a custom-sized solution, we can provide that for you too. Choose the right powder coating equipment for your business with Startpowdercoating.com.

If the product you want to powder coat has a lot of debris (rust, laser scale, preexisting paint), then you will likely need a Blast Room. A blast room is an enclosure where you use compressed air to propel abrasive material against the surface of your parts. Depending on the situation, you would typically use either an appropriate blast media (grit) or steel shot to blast all the unwanted debris off your part until it has a clean metal surface that’s ready for powder coating. Blast rooms are especially useful for job shops that work with raw materials that aren’t pristine, such as plate steel or tube stock that has areas of oxidation or welding residue. (For more information on getting the right blast room, go here.)

If oils, solvents or chemical residue covers any part of your products’ surface, you’ll want to consider a Wash Station. A wash station is where you spray your parts with a detergent and/or chemical pretreatment agent, such as iron phosphate. Using hot water or steam to clean and then chemically prep parts is quite common. A wash station helps you increase powder adhesion and improve finish quality, even if the parts have already been blasted. Some wash stations require you to apply the chemistry manually using a spray wand. Other washers are automated and the parts travel through the cleaning, rinsing and prep stages on a conveyor.

In some operations, pretreatment requires the use of a Dry-Off Oven. This is commonly an appliance similar to a curing oven, but where the just-washed parts are heated in order to evaporate any water or chemistry still on them. This step can also help parts reach an optimum temperature for powder application.

Pretreatment equipment is incredibly useful for your operation and can make a big difference in the quality of your work, but an elaborate system isn’t always required for powder coating. While we can’t stress how important it is to have a clean surface before you apply powder, expensive pretreatment equipment isn’t mandatory for entry level coating operations where hands-on cleaning (such as with a tack rag and solvent) can be employed as needed.

Application: Powder Guns and Powder Spray Booths

Powder coating application is almost always done with a special Powder Spray Gun. In order for powder coating to work effectively, the powder must be electrostatically charged. The only way to apply this charge is with a spray gun designed exclusively for powder coating. Compressed air moves powder through the gun from a hopper or directly from the box the powder is stored in. The compressed air blows powder out of the gun as a tightly formed cloud. As the powder leaves the gun, it receives an electrostatic charge. Once charged, the powder cloud envelopes the part and the powder sticks to the surface of the grounded part (which is one of the reasons why powder coating equipment is so easy for new operators to use).

If you want to powder coat, you need a powder coating gun. There are many types of powder spray guns available on the market. We always recommend investing in a professional-grade powder gun, as they are more reliable and provide better results.

Once you have your powder gun, you’ll need to have a place to use it. Whenever you spray powder, some of the powder will end up on the floor and in the air instead of on your products. This leftover powder is referred to as overspray. Keeping this overspray out of your workspace is one of the functions of the Powder Spray Booth.

The powder spray booth is designed to keep the rest of your shop clean while providing a well-lit area for you to apply powder coating. All powder spray booths will have one or more exhaust fans. The exhaust will use filters to capture at least some of the overspray. If the exhaust works properly and the filters are maintained, the airflow in the booth should keep the overspray inside the enclosure and enable the painter to see what he’s doing. If your shop environment includes welding or blasting areas, filtered doors on the spray booth can keep airborne contaminants out of your powder coated finish.

Numerous booth configurations are available, and getting the ideal booth depends largely on what you’re coating, your floor space availability, and your workflow requirements. Powder spray booths can be open-faced or have doors on one end. They can also be tunnel style enclosures with the filtration built into the floor or wall(s). If you have space constraints, a Powder Spray Wall may help you get the airflow and filtration you need. A spray wall is just a large filtration system—essentially a spray booth without walls or a roof.

If you want to recycle your powder, you need to make sure your powder spray booth is built with a reclamation system. Usually this system will rely on pleated cartridge filters. These help you recover some of the overspray and reuse it. This can be very cost-effective if you are planning to use only one color and type of powder for your coating. The spent powder is trapped in the filters and then dislodged into a recovery bin for reuse. In more advanced systems, the powder is automatically reconditioned, mixed with virgin powder, and then returned to the supply hopper feeding the powder gun(s). If you are planning to reclaim a variety of colors, a set of removable filter modules is required. Unfortunately, the cost of buying multiple reclaim modules can add up quickly because you can only reclaim one color in each filter module.

No matter what type of booth you decide on, you’ll need a powder spray booth if you want to get quality results and maintain reasonable throughput from your coating operation. (For more information on what size powder spray booth you might need, click here.)

If you have stringent finish requirements, you may also need a Clean Room (also called an Environmental Room). This is usually a climate-controlled room built around the powder application area. The purpose of a clean room is to eliminate airborne contaminants and control the temperature and humidity during powder application to prevent any sort of contamination, clumping or consistency issues when applying the powder. Clean rooms are often recommended if your shop environment is particularly dirty or your products require an exact specification for adhesion or salt spray tolerance. (For more about requirements, click here.)

Curing: Powder Curing Ovens

After your product is powder coated, the final step is to place it inside a specially designed Powder Curing Oven. They usually operate between 325° and 450° Fahrenheit. Once the oven is up to temperature, the temperature stabilizes. The coated products are exposed to precisely heated air for a set period of time. Once the curing process is complete, the parts are removed and allowed to cool before being handled.

Some ovens use infrared emitters to heat the surface of the coated parts, but these types of electric powered or gas catalytic ovens can be costly to buy and expensive to maintain. More commonly, ovens rely on electric heating elements or a natural gas or LP-fueled heat system. These more conventional ovens typically rely on heated air moving over the parts for convection curing.

The time it takes to cure the powder varies greatly depending on the size, shape and thickness of the parts being coated. A small, light-gauge bracket can take as little as ten minutes to cure completely, while a 20’ section of heavy-walled pipe may take over an hour to cure properly.

If you want to powder coat at a professional level, the type of oven you choose is critical.  Not only are brand-name powder curing ovens designed specifically to generate premium coating results, they are also highly efficient appliances in terms of fuel usage and energy costs. It’s likely that you’ll be using your oven several hours per week, so the cost of an inefficient design can quickly sap your profits.

Similar to powder spray booths, powder curing ovens come in multiple sizes and configurations. (For more information on what size powder coating oven you will need, click here.)

Professional Powder Coating Systems Layouts

There are two basic configurations for any powder Coating Line: batch or automated.

A Batch Powder Coating Line is usually a system where the parts are prepared, coated and cured in batches of multiple parts, with operators handling up to dozens or hundreds of parts at a time. The products are usually hung on metal rolling racks, which move with the parts throughout the coating process. (Remember: high-temperature or metal casters for your racks are very important!) With a batch line, parts are usually moved from stage to stage manually, and the term “batch coating system” is also commonly used to describe operations where large objects are coated individually after being moved by hand or with machine.

An Automated Powder Coating Line uses basically the same appliances as a batch system, but connects many or all of the stages via a motorized conveyor that moves the parts through at a constant rate. The products are usually loaded onto the conveyor at a set location and move through each stage, where either manual operators or automated devices clean and prep the parts and apply powder to them. Once coated, the parts move through the curing oven and then cool as they travel along the conveyor to a point where they can be unloaded.

ZHYAO contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.

(For more information on whether a batch coating line or an automated coating line is right for your business, follow this link to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of each system.)

Powder Coating Equipment From Reliant Finishing Systems

Hopefully this Beginner’s Guide to Powder Coating Equipment has answered your basic questions about what powder coating is, how it is done, and what you need to start your first powder coating line. If you would like to learn more, please give us a call at (888) 770-. Reliant Finishing Systems’ specialists can help! We’ll guide you through the process of setting up a powder coating shop or adding coating capabilities to your existing fab shop or manufacturing facility. Whether it’s your very first powder coating system or you’re upgrading to a complete automated line, you can trust Reliant to provide you with sound advice and affordable, High Quality equipment.

Updated Content Dec 9,

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in metal fabricating companies, both small and large, wanting to bring powder coating operations in-house rather than rely on other companies to coat their products. By performing powder coating tasks at their facility, they won’t have to worry about excess handling of the parts, which can be damaged in transit between the shop and the coater. They also retain control of their production schedule by not having to rely on a contractor, and they can significantly reduce coating and handling costs.

Despite the increased interest, plenty of metal fabricators don’t know a lot about what goes into a powder coating operation. This overview provides a breakdown of the different components of a powder coating line and the options available for a company looking to install this type of operation on its shop floor.

Why Powder Coating?

Powder coating gets its name from the material that ultimately creates the finish on a metal part. The powder particles, in effect, are the paint.

In most systems, the powder coating material is electrostatically charged as it is sprayed. The charged powder particles are then attracted to the metal parts, which are grounded via the metal racks or hooks from which they are hung. When the coating is heated in an oven, the powder melts, flows together, and becomes a uniform, durable finish when it cools.

Powder coating is favored by many manufacturers and metal fabricators because of its resistance to chipping, fading, scratching, and general wear. Because of this durability, powder coatings often are the finish of choice for products that are consistently exposed to moisture, sunlight, or other environmental factors.

It’s important to understand some common terms used to describe powder coating systems. The most basic systems are set up for batch coating. In batch systems, the parts are usually hung from rolling racks or placed on carts. The parts are moved from appliance to appliance, either one large part at a time or in batches of several small or mid-sized parts. The process steps are usually performed by human operators.

A conveyorized system can be manual or automatic. A manual system would require human operators to prepare parts and apply powder coating to them as they pass by on a conveyor. With an automated line, there is powered transport of the parts, combined with automated pretreatment and powder application. Both manual and automated systems use specially sized ovens for drying and curing.

What Determines a Powder Coating Setup?

The product mix and throughput requirements help determine the type and size of equipment in a powder coating operation. As a general rule, the more similar the products are in size and shape, the more likely they are to be good candidates for an automated or conveyorized line. A manual batch coating system may be a better fit for very large or complex parts, as well as for situations where there is a big difference in the overall dimensions of the parts to be coated.

In a shop where only a limited number of parts are coated each week, a batch system is the obvious solution. For companies with greater throughput demands, it may make sense to consider more sophisticated systems. For a manufacturer with an overriding need for high throughput, a conveyorized manual or automated system may be the only practical answer.

When comparing acquisition costs, simple batch systems cost significantly less to purchase and install than other types of systems. An automated system typically costs between three and 12 times as much as a batch system that might accommodate the same parts. A manual conveyorized system is priced somewhere between the two.

Another consideration is the amount of floor space available. The equipment arrangement must allow for maintenance access, and the layout must provide enough room for parts to be moved safely from appliance to appliance. With batch systems, these areas often can be condensed to save space. A conveyorized system typically uses quite a bit more floor space than a batch setup, especially if there is a multistage pretreatment washer involved. With more elaborate systems, there may be sections of a power-and-free conveyor. This configuration allows parts to stop moving while the main conveyor remains in motion. A power-and-free conveyor is sometimes used to help reduce the size of the appliances or minimize the amount of space needed for parts to cool before being handled.

This touches upon another issue: labor costs. If a company has a demanding production environment and uses manual equipment, it’s going to need multiple people to prep parts, mask them, and spray the powder. People also are needed to load and unload parts from the racks or conveyor. With a batch system, workers also have to move the parts between appliances.

Even with a highly efficient automated line that performs pretreatment and powder coating automatically, a company needs at least one touch-up/quality control person and additional personnel to maintain the equipment and monitor pretreatment chemistry titration and appliance settings. This is in addition to the people who perform masking and parts handling. Manufacturers and metal fabricators can’t get away from the fact they will need additional employees dedicated to their new powder coating operation.

Step 1: Pretreatment

The first, and arguably the most important, step to a good finish is getting the metal parts ready to accept powder coating. This is commonly known as pretreatment or parts prep. This stage involves cleaning the parts and preparing their surfaces so the powder coating adheres properly, providing a long-lasting finish and a protective layer to prevent corrosion. Inadequate or improper pretreatment practices cause the vast majority of finish defects.

The metal substrate drives the pretreatment approach. Is it steel? Is it aluminum? Is it a mix of both? Different materials typically require different pretreatment chemistries.

The next factor to consider is the amount of cleaning required. Is there a certain standard the finish must meet to be acceptable? Many common finish standards include strict guidelines for pretreatment.

The condition of the parts also dictates what type of preparation is required. Did a part come straight from manufacturing, or was it left in a bin near the welding department for weeks? Did larger parts briefly sit in the yard, or have they been outside for a while and gotten rusty? Does scale or welding spatter need to be removed from the surface? How much grease or machine oil is on the part? With material that is relatively free of rust and debris, a single chemistry may be all that’s needed to achieve a clean part.

Although pretreatment chemicals can address many surface issues, some parts might require mechanical preparation first. Media blasting is often used to remove surface rust and address imperfections. Blasting is frequently isolated from the rest of the coating operation, but some systems include blast rooms or automated blasting machines installed adjacent to the other finishing equipment.

Parts cleaning usually is followed by a conversion coating, which provides the metal surface with some tooth, enabling the powder to better affix itself to the surface during curing for maximum adhesion. This ensures a more durable finish.

Some shops require only a simple setup where operators manually apply a cleaner or pretreatment chemical with a pump sprayer or a low-pressure spray wand. This type of equipment can be used to apply cleaners and chemistries that work at ambient temperatures.

From there, a company might consider stepping up to a heated spray wand or a steam unit. These can be configured to work with more than one pretreatment product at a time and are fairly simple to use. Dry steam units generate less water as a byproduct when compared to other spraying methods but won’t provide the forceful cleaning of conventional spray wand systems.

Manual pretreatment is commonly done in a wash station that features a metal enclosure or curtain walls to prevent the spray from getting into the shop environment. The wash station usually includes a fan system to vent steam or mist that might have a negative impact on nearby production equipment or parts.

These wash stations usually rely on a metal or masonry basin to capture residual liquid, which is pumped into storage containers for disposal, given time to evaporate, or put down the drain when allowed by local codes. Most manual systems use a spray-to-waste design so operators don’t have to contend with storage and recycling. Others have limited recycling, but that approach might restrict which pretreatment chemistries a company can consider. It also requires more strenuous chemistry monitoring and adjustment. That’s why most manual systems are set up so spent chemistry is not reused, and operators are always spraying fresh chemistry.

When throughput demands are high and acquisition cost isn’t a key consideration, an automated multistage pretreatment system might be the best solution. Most automated pretreatment systems have between three and nine stages, although more elaborate systems exist. In a simple system, there’s usually a heated treatment stage, an ambient rinse, and an ambient final rinse or sealant. In a more complex system, there can be multiple heated stages, redundant rinses, and stages that involve specially treated water and chemical sealants.

A multistage pretreatment system often is the single most expensive component in a powder coating line. Price is dictated by the size and number of stages involved. During the design phase, the equipment is scaled to meet throughput demands. The higher the throughput rate, the faster the conveyor runs and the longer the pretreatment system must be to allow for adequate dwell times for the various chemistries. So, if the parts sizing, chemistry, and number of stages remain the same, a system designed for a 2-FPM conveyor rate will be smaller and less expensive than one designed for 10 FPM.

Step 2: Powder Application

Once the parts have dried after the pretreatment stage, powder application takes place. In the simplest setup, a shop has an open-faced enclosure with a filtered exhaust system where the powder is applied manually. The powder application gun is typically on a small cart and is either fed from a compact metal hopper or draws the powder directly from its box.

With hopper-fed powder guns, the powder is isolated from the shop environment, which helps prevent contamination issues. This approach works extremely well if only a few different powders are being sprayed. The coater uses different hoppers for different products, and they are rotated depending on what powder is needed. Larger hopper systems allow one or more guns to feed from a much greater reserve of powder, so less production time is wasted swapping from box to box or hopper to hopper. If numerous colors and textures are routinely sprayed, it is more common to see box-fed guns in use or a combination of hopper-fed guns for standard powders and one or two box-fed guns for custom jobs.

Most spray booths are designed to accommodate either one or two operators, depending on the size of the enclosure and the throughput requirements. Booths can include specialized lighting, intake filtration, observation windows, and solid or filtered doors to help isolate the application process from the rest of the shop environment. Sometimes the entire application area is contained in an environmentally controlled room.

Spray booths typically feature filtration systems that capture powder overspray so it can be discarded. In the most affordable booth configurations, disposable filters collect the overspray and are routinely replaced.

Most operators prefer self-cleaning cartridge filtration units because they eliminate the downtime associated with frequent filter changes. The cartridge filters are cleaned by pulses of compressed air that dislodge the powder, which falls into a collection area or bins. This powder can be discarded or reused if a reclamation system is mated to the booth.

The most advanced setups may include off-board collectors, which allow spent powder to be drawn away from the booth or even outside the building. Booths that are designed for use where extensive overspray is anticipated may include cyclonic exhaust modules, not unlike those used for other industrial applications.

Automated powder application booths vary in complexity. The simplest models have an array of hopper-fed guns mounted on adjustable stands. The guns are oriented to ensure the spray pattern properly covers the incoming parts as they pass through on the conveyor.

Movement can be added to the spray gun arrays for greater versatility. Powered arms move the guns up and down or side to side, or both. Some systems also allow the guns to move in and out or to have their orientation changed without manual adjustment.

Higher-end systems can be programmed with unique routines for different parts. This allows the guns to move in specific patterns, spray at precise intervals, and adjust their settings to achieve optimum results with a variety of parts. With many automated systems, the operator also can create specialized job logs to track production.

Color changing is another part of the powder application discussion. With a manual box-fed gun, it’s as easy as removing the pick-up tube from the box of powder, cleaning the hose and gun, then swapping to a different box. Hopper-fed systems require more extensive cleaning during powder changes. With automated systems, the operators usually have to spend more time changing from one powder to the next. Rapid color-change systems have been developed, but they represent a significant investment.

In addition to the need for clean hoppers and application equipment when swapping between powders, different powders can’t be collected in the same set of filters and then reused. If a booth is designed for use with more than one powder that is going to be reclaimed, it is common to see filter modules that can be detached from the booth and swapped for different modules designated for particular powders. This prevents contamination and ensures that the captured powder is suitable for reuse. If custom work is anticipated, one or more filter modules are reserved for spray-to-waste use, and the powder collected from those modules is discarded.

Step 3: Curing

Curing ovens come in many shapes and sizes. Some companies, particularly those with lower-throughput batch coating operations, use the same oven for drying parts after pretreatment and curing the powder-coated finish. Most companies choose to maintain separate ovens for drying and curing, not only to maximize productivity but also to have redundant capabilities in case one oven is out of operation for repair or maintenance. Companies with conveyorized coating lines typically have separate dry-off and curing ovens to allow for constant throughput.

Some curing ovens rely on infrared (IR) technology to cure the powder. These ovens typically have a smaller footprint than convection ovens. Gas catalytic or electrically powered emitters provide radiant heating. When the IR radiation is directed at the part, the transfer of energy allows curing to begin very quickly. IR ovens work well for simple parts such as flat panels, tubes, and boxes but may not be a good fit for more complex parts. This is because the IR emitters need to be aligned so energy can be radiated directly onto the powder-coated surfaces.

Hybrid ovens are becoming increasingly popular for conveyorized applications. IR emitters are used to heat the parts quickly and pre-gel the powder before the parts pass through a convection oven to complete the curing process. The overall size of the convection oven can be reduced, freeing up floor space.

In most systems, however, the curing ovens are gas-fueled and rely solely on convection heating. One or several powerful fans cycle heated air through the oven, with only a small amount exhausted to ensure safety and meet code requirements. Convection ovens designed for the powder curing process typically need to reach temperatures between 350 degrees F and 450 degrees F. Most ovens are set to cure powder at around 400 degrees F.

Many mistakenly assume that a curing oven is expensive to operate because of the natural gas or liquified petroleum gas needed to run it. However, well-made ovens are surprisingly fuel-efficient. When in operation, these ovens use the most fuel during startup. Once an oven is operating at the desired curing temperature, it’s not using as much gas. Only a small amount of heated air is exhausted from the oven, and the rest is constantly recirculated and reheated. So the heat system is not at full output.

In terms of operational expense, a walk-in-sized batch curing oven with a single heater may cost as little as $10 per hour to run, and a much larger oven for a conveyorized system may cost around $100 per hour. With conveyorized lines that are constantly curing parts, oven operation is an ongoing expense. With batch coating, proper planning can reduce operating costs.

The more thoughtful a company is about batching parts for curing, the less expensive it is to operate a batch curing oven. For example, if a company has a part that it is going to be fabricated on a predictable basis, it can accumulate a large supply of those parts, coat them, and then fully load the curing oven, rather than stopping and starting the oven throughout the day to cure only a few parts at a time. If throughput demands allow it, a company might save money by running its batch oven only a few days per week, processing multiple loads of parts back to back instead of stopping and starting the oven repeatedly each day.

Other Factors to Consider

Companies considering a potential powder coating system layout shouldn’t overlook the total amount of floor space required to work efficiently. The last thing a company wants is a powder coating operation that is unsafe or presents space constraints for workers. Is there enough room between appliances to remove a part from the line if there’s a problem? In the booth, can the coaters efficiently access all sides of the parts being coated? Does the conveyor have adequate space to move parts safely through the entire coating process? If it’s a batch operation, is there enough room to accommodate the movement of rolling racks or forklifts? There are few things more frustrating than having to wrestle with a heavy batch of parts because the turning radius needed for the parts rack to enter the equipment wasn’t properly accounted for.

Another commonly overlooked space consideration is the need for staging areas. With batch systems, space is needed to accumulate parts as they are made ready for each stage of the powder coating process. Otherwise, the operator is running back and forth moving parts instead of staying focused on prep work and coating.

With conveyorized systems, the loading and unloading areas should be well thought out. There needs to be adequate time for coated parts to cool down after curing, so there is sometimes a section of conveyor added after the curing oven. It is sized to ensure parts can be handled safely during unloading and may include a series of zigzags or a straight section of track, sometimes with a turn so parts go down and come back before being unloaded.

A final consideration is planning for growth. After a system has been in operation for a while, it’s not uncommon to end up needing to process more parts per shift or coat new parts that are too large for the equipment to handle. Most batch coating systems have some degree of modularity, so existing appliances can be expanded or new appliances can be added to accommodate larger parts or greater throughput requirements. This can only be done if the system hasn’t been shoehorned into a cramped space. With conveyorized systems, enlarging and repositioning the equipment is much more difficult and much more expensive, so it's better to size the system with potential future needs in mind.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Automatic powder coating line(ms,mn,pt). Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.