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Newsletter 2006 issue 1 |
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Streater: Liquid to Powder
Streater, a manufacturer of store fixtures in Albert Lea, switched to using powder coating. But the 300-employee company needed to do a lot of research to justify the $2.5 million system change.
“We took a little extra time and evaluated the change because of the large investment,” said Bob Shellen, Streater’s quality and environmental manager.
Streater had three liquid painting lines to coat product. The liquid coatings resulted in releases of 40 tons per year (tpy) of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
“I was able to go to Paul Pagel (MnTAP coating specialist) with questions about cost analysis to prove that we could get this project off the ground and make it work,” noted Shellen.
Pagel pointed Streater to several resources, such as the Powder Coating Institute software that helped with the cost calculations of converting liquid to powder coating lines. The company worked extensively with vendors to make the right choices for its operation. Streater also sent two staff to a 10-week powder coating class that MnTAP and the Twin Cities Chapter of Chemical Coaters Association International sponsored.
“I was one of the staff who attended the class,” said Shellen. “I was able to learn the vocabulary associated with the technology and also how to evaluate the savings for our company.”
After adding a powder coating line and taking out one of the two remaining liquid lines, in 2005 the company documented cutting VOC emissions approximately 40 percent to 23 tpy while maintaining production levels. The system’s payback is ahead of schedule and Streater is considering replacing the remaining liquid line with another powder line in the next few years.
Streater thinks that the powder coating line is superior to the liquid line in many ways. Powder coating is a much cleaner and easier to manage technology. The company no longer has to deal with the VOC emissions that it did with the liquid line. And, powder paint has better overall transfer efficiency. Because powder paint is 100 percent solids, Streater no longer loses a significant percent of the paint as the solvents flash away. Other than what ends up as scrap, the paint that Streater buys goes on the finished part.
In Streater’s experience, powder coating lines are easier to start up. The company was able to start the new powder coating line at 7:00 in the morning and saw significant results the same day. The start up of the liquid line wasn’t that easy.
“The powder coating technology is just superior,” commented Shellen. “Our employees were a little nervous about the new technology. Since it is more high-tech, the operators were a little intimidated by the new system. Now they like it and they wouldn’t want to go back to the old liquid one.”
For more information on powder coating contact MnTAP’s coating specialist Paul Pagel at 612.624.4638, visit the Painting & Wood Finishing Web site or attend the Minnesota Paint and Powder Coating Expo.
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