Spinner hanger blast machine eliminates capacity bottleneck in the paint preparation
Because of rapidly increasing demand for powder-coated and wet-painted components GAM Coating had to increase its shot blasting capacity. With a spinner hanger blast machine from Rösler the company purchased a highly flexible “work horse” that excels through excellent shot blasting qualities and low energy consumption.
The practically identical residential buildings at the Ijsselstraat 29a location in Oss, Netherlands, where the brothers Arnold and Marc Princen reside, along with the adjacent manufacturing facility transmit the impression of integrity and reliability. This is the headquarters of GAM Coating, short for Gerrit, Arnold and Marc. The company was founded by the father, Gerrit, in 1972 as an automotive paint and body shop. Over the past 50 years GAM evolved into a highly professional specialist for powder coating, wet painting, shot blasting, glass bead blasting and grinding. Marc Princen, dressed in an overall covered with paint spots, welcomes us with a smile: „Demand for our services is very high. We would have no excess capacity, even if our facility was twice its current size”.
A sure recipe for success: Quality, flexibility and reliability
Over time the company replaced the automotive paint operation with a variety of industrial work. Today’s customers come from industries like automotive, machinery building and agricultural equipment. In addition, components pre-dominantly used in internal areas are powder coated and painted with wet paint. Marc Princen explains: „Between large orders we can handle small jobs or quickly help out customers who received an unexpected purchase order. Many coating job shops have a very rigid, inflexible work organization. For example, on Mondays the color black is applied and on Tuesdays it is the color blue. If a customer needs a black component on a Tuesday, he must wait until next Monday. We are a lot more flexible and provide our service to our customers as they need it.“ Exactly this flexibility, combined with a high coating quality and on-time deliveries, is the reason for the continuously increasing demand from different industrial sectors.
Shot blasting as an eco-friendly paint preparation
GAM Coating knows that excellent surface preparation is a key prerequisite for high-quality coatings. Marc Princen comments: „Since it is much more eco-friendly than chemical pre-treatment, we are employing shot blasting for paint preparation”. As blast media the company is using corundum because it does not react with the substrate of the work pieces. Large components are blasted manually in a blast room. „This allows optimally pre-treating hot-dipped steel, stainless steel and other non-ferrous metals. The blast media is added to the compressed air in precise quantities. Broken down media and other contaminants are continuously discharged through a dust collector. Our operators are equipped with approved pressure breathing protection devices fed by cleaned air, and they are dressed in special protective clothing”, describes Marc Princen.
While GAM Coating still had sufficient capacity for powder coating jobs, rapidly increasing demand for wet painting required a capacity expansion. After careful evaluation of the pros and cons of an additional blast room vs. the purchase of a shot blast machine, the customer decided to go with the option of purchasing a new blast machine.
Spinner hanger blast machine: A highly productive and flexible work horse
GAM Coating chose a spinner hanger blast machine from Rösler. These machines are ideal for de-scaling, de-rusting, paint stripping, surface texturing and de-sanding of large or heavy components, including complex steel fabrications. A special overhead rail system transports the components, hanging on special trusses, into the shot blast machine. The blast process takes place with the work pieces moving in the blast chamber continuously or indexing. The overhead rail system is designed as an open “Y”. This allows to load/unload work piece at two stations so that unproductive times are kept at a minimum. A special feature of the Rösler shot blast machine is its excellent wear protection: The blast chamber consists of 8 mm thick welded manganese steel. In addition, the blast area is specially protected by easily exchangeable 10 mm wear plates, also made from manganese steel.
The blast chamber with a height of 2,700 mm and a width of 2,200 mm allows the fully automatic shot blasting of components with max. dimensions of 2,000 by 2,000 mm, such as shelves, machinery components, door frames and tables. Such components represent about 75 % of the component range handled by GAM Coating. „Programming of the Rösler machine is very simple, as we only have to set the blast time and turbine RPM”, adds Marc Princen. Besides its high productivity the shot blast machine is also characterized by its high energy efficiency. In this respect the Gamma G turbines with “Y” shaped throwing blades play a key role. Compared to conventional turbines the special curved blade design in the Gamma G turbines produces a 20 % higher blast performance with a lower energy consumption. Marc Princen concludes: „Energy considerations definitely play an important role in today’s industrial environment. On the one hand lower energy consumption is good for the environment. On the other hand the price for energy is an important cost factor”.