An interview on the occasion of PaintExpo 2020
07/2019
What does the future hold for industrial painting technology? What challenges do we have to face? What importance do we ascribe to PaintExpo? Andre Felchner Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Mechanical Engineering, Sales Manager Painting Systems, SLF Oberflächentechnik GmbH, shows trends and solutions in an interview.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges currently facing painting companies and contract coaters?
The coating industry is subject to strong price pressure. Therefore, production costs are an immensely important factor and are subject to continuous price control. When designing a new concept, it is important to create a concept that guarantees maximum flexibility with regard to the processing of the range of parts. The achievement of constantly increasing quality targets and the achievement of throughput targets are becoming more and more important. The real challenge here is the plant design, which must convince the customer, both in terms of operating costs and investment costs.
From your point of view, what are the best options for optimizing painting processes?
The optimal painting process depends on many factors. Taking into account the targeted throughput figures, the component and its properties and above all the targeted quality (optical and/or functional), the interaction of paint material and plant technology is very decisive. The more precisely these factors are coordinated, the better the coating result.
What trends are emerging in your area of industrial painting technology?
The essential development can be summarized in one word only: "efficiency increase". The term has been strained in recent years already very strongly, but from my point of view it’s to the point, especially in industrial painting technology. A great deal is currently being thought about possible automation processes, especially in processes that five years ago were considered rather beside the point. Examples of this are the robotized coating of components with batch size 1 or robotized grinding processes on large components.
What developments/solutions does your company offer for these trends?
In cooperation with our customers, we have the opportunity to develop plant concepts tailored to their needs.
Thanks to the innovative orientation of our company, we can fall back on a broad portfolio. This enables us to find suitable solutions for individual requirements, whether for manual or robotized processes.
Thanks to the innovative orientation of our company, we can fall back on a broad portfolio. This enables us to find suitable solutions for individual requirements, whether for manual or robotized processes.
What significance does PaintExpo have for your company?
PaintExpo is very important for us as a communication and network platform. The quality of the contacts made is excellent, which is why PaintExpo is so valuable for us.
More information about PaintExpo can be found here.
