Оптимизация стеллажей для порошковой окраски повышает производительность и снижает затраты

The Hidden Cost of Bad Powder Coating Racks Twisted hooks, coating buildup and half-empty racks are more expensive than you think. Discover how optimizing your racking strategy can boost throughput, improve first-pass yield and cut operational costs. Source | Getty Images Q: We have been powder coating now for a few years and we get reasonably good results, but I am sure we could do better. Our reject and rework is too high and we really need to get better throughput. We can do a good job some days and get out a lot of good parts, but we are not as consistent as we need to be. One of my concerns is the way we rack our parts and take care of our hooks and racks. Some of our racks and hooks have a lot of powder buildup and rack maintenance can be held up due to production demands. Some of our racks that are damaged during production and we use some hooks that do not hold as many parts as we could fit on the line if we had a better racking scheme. Is there any way to quantify the impact of racking on the powder coating process? Can you give us some guidance on rack design and line density? A: This is an interesting question because racking is one the biggest and most obvious contributors to success or failure in a powder operation. It is very common to see large line gaps, bent and broken racks, twisted hooks, too much powder buildup on racks, racks that are only partially full, different hooks or racks being used for the same part or just bad rack designs. The cost of poor racking is ridiculously high. First, you need to understand the principles of good racking. Good density is a key. Parts should be grouped close enough together to reduce the space around them so the ratio of metal to air is high. Of course, there is a limit to how much space to allow between parts for good coating. There must be enough space around a part to make it easy to cover, allowing enough time for manual operators and avoiding light coating because the application process cannot handle the volume. But within reason, more is better. Always evaluate options and choose the smartest racking method, even when it means investing in a new tool. Second, the parts should be positioned so that they can be easily accessed and easy to see. They should be held in a stable and consistent position. There should not be large gaps between racks as long as there is sufficient time to coat the parts based on the line speed and number of guns. Contacts must always be clean so that there is no way a part can be insulated from earth ground by coating buildup. Good racking is an important key to profitable coating. The costs can be evaluated to determine the difference between a good racking arrangement and a poor racking arrangement. To determine the cost associated with racking, you need to evaluate what your throughput could be if you had proper racks and compare it to how you run it now. You can build samples to test theories and compare the defect rates of one racking pattern to another. If you can quantify the current rack capacity and quality, you can compare them to any other racking option. It is simple math to evaluate the number of parts per foot and the number of good parts versus bad. Many companies waste a lot of dollars by using sub-optimum racks because they do not want to invest in tooling, they do not want too many different rack designs around or they simply do not even evaluate it at all. Evaluate the options — there is a good chance you can improve the throughput and reduce costs by using the right racking scheme. Consider a rack that holds one part on a simple hook. You know you can hold two parts if you build a special tool. The tool cost will be $600 for a full set of two-piece racks. If you divide your fixed cost by your production throughput, you can determine the savings. Then you can see how long it will take to recover the $600 investment. If the part in question is high volume, your return on investment (ROI) will be fast. If you run it very infrequently, the ROI may be too slow. If you improve your first pass yield, the ROI could be very fast. Always evaluate options and choose the smartest racking method, even when it means investing in a new tool. With a good earth ground, good maintenance and proper density you can really improve your profitability. About the Author Rodger Talbert Rodger has more than 30 years of experience in the powder coating industry. Related Content Epoxy Rebar Company Reinforcing Roads of the Future Providing epoxy-coated rebar with the ultimate corrosion resistance is Simcote’s focus for the infrastructure industry it serves. 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