Organizations consider many factors when considering a painting or coating finishing system. The capabilities of the system and its design are critical to performance. One area to pay close attention to is maximizing part density. Traditional chain conveyors come up short here, with most requiring 6-inch spacing or more between parts. A flexible solution with smart controls, like the IntelliFinishing System, is a game-changer for part density, with racking as a key ingredient. 

In this post, you’ll learn what part density is, how to maximize it, and how racking plays a role. 

What Is Part Density, and Why Is It Hard to Achieve with Chain-Based Conveyors?

Part density describes the ability to hang parts tightly together on a system. Monorail systems typically have poor density. Items must hang from hooks on the chain, spaced from a few inches to even feet apart. Loaders hang parts as the chain moves by at a set speed. For high-speed operations, loaders must scramble to keep up with the chain. As a result, they often must place relatively small pieces a far distance from one another, which creates big gaps and low part density. 

The only way to increase part density in this scenario is by preloading parts offline onto a removable load bar and then hanging a whole raft of parts at once. It can be challenging with a constantly moving chain system. There is sometimes the ability to stop the chain for loading, but it’s not without unintended, negative impacts downstream. Those impacts can include issues with the timing of pretreatment stages of a wash, travel through a shotblast, time in ovens, the timing of the processing of parts in the paint booths, and of course a drag on total throughput. 

Because these systems literally chain you to a speed with a given amount of time to hang, you’ll constantly fight the part density battle. 

Maximizing Part Density and Stop Chasing the Chain

The solution is to stop chasing the chain! Power and free systems and the IntelliFinishing system have the ability for carriers to halt, receive loads, and rejoin the main line. However, there are differences between these two concerning part density. 

The IntelliFinishing System enables smooth acceleration and deceleration because a VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) motor control for each track section. Power and free conveyors use motors that control long chain sections, each typically having a specific speed. In this situation, a carrier “dedogs” from one chain at one pace and then “dogs” onto another chain at another rate. The effect of this is parts swinging considerably, which has its own set of concerns. 

Why Is Maximizing Part Density So Critical in a Finishing System?

Maximizing part density results in finishing more products in less time. When the finishing time is less, you save on natural gas, electricity, and labor, so your total cost to finish per square inch decreases. 

It all comes back to the ability to pack parts closer, which you can do more consistently with the IntelliFinishing System. Typically, spacing can be as little as a few inches, so you’ll be processing more parts per hour. There’s also almost no part sway. The gains in efficiency can range from 10-30%. But to further optimize, you’ll need to have the proper racking, too.

How Racking Supports Part Density

Racking is the key to part density. You won’t have great part density if racking prevents parts from hanging tightly. For example, one of our system customers, JR Metal Fabrication, designed their own racking that greatly maximizes part density. Their setup includes a vertical hanging bar with slots at specific distances. From this, horizontal bars fit within the slots to create a grid. Each horizontal bar has an approximate spur spaced every few inches from which parts hang. The spurs, rails, and hanging bars come in a variety of sizes and arrangements to work with many different types of parts. This rail and slot hanging rack system allows JR Metal Fabrication to maximize part density on their 10-foot carriers. They routinely place from 20 to as many as 800 parts on each carrier.

How Can You Use an IntelliFinishing System for Racking and Increase Part Density?

We don’t provide the racking with our systems. It’s usually the responsibility of the system owner. However, we have a system that allows for greater part density than traditional chain-based overhead conveyor based finishing systems. The racking should be appropriately sized and fitted for the parts you finish and for the size of carrier you need on your system.

Are There Ever Situations Where Part Density or Racking Don’t Matter?

The answer is—they always matter. There may be instances where part density is fixed for some reason. An example is our customer, Prince Hydraulics, which paints hydraulic cylinders and valves. They determined they always hang only eight cylinders vertically per carrier, which is 8 feet long. Each cylinder is about a foot apart.

Cylinders can be an inch or two in diameter to several inches. Their lengths vary, too. Their system spins cylinders using star gears as they emerge from the wash, move through the blow-off device and, arrive in the paint booth in front of robotic paint applicators.

In theory, they could hang more than one cylinder. However, the spinning effect would cause lower cylinders to wobble if daisy-chained to the top cylinder. To mitigate this, they choose to go with eight cylindrical products per carrier only. However, they also paint hydraulic valves. When painting valves they hang between 4 to 8 valves vertically per each of the 8 foot hook spaces. In this way they can paint from 24 to 80 valves per 8-foot carrier. Depending on the size of the valves, each vertical rack creates a space between the valves from several to just a couple inches apart. The vertical rail still spins during the blow off and within the booth. Because the valves attach to the rail, the spin is controlled, and the robotic paint program adjusts to finish each valve. The part information at each hanging spot on the carrier is transferred from their ERP where it’s recorded in production when the parts are hung on removable loadbars resting on carts and then transferred to their IntelliFinishing system when the removable bar with parts are being loaded. The part information then is communicated to the robotic program through their IntelliFinishing Recipe system. This technique allows Prince to load up to 80 valves per carrier, depending on the size.

Maximize Part Density with a Full Plate

The IntelliFinishing System is an innovative take on finishing systems. It’s chainless, agile, and has the capabilities to increase part density and capitalize on great racking. All the ingredients come together so your business can fill up on total finish efficiency. Contact us to see if an IntelliFinishing system might be right for you.

IntelliFinishing is a leading provider of automated industrial powder coating and liquid paint systems. IntelliFinishing is a DBA of Kasa Controls & Automation. Kasa (and therefore IntelliFinishing) is an expert in both simulation and emulation not only in paint finishing but also in the industries of automotive, baggage handling, and parcel automation.

At IntelliFinishing, we realize finishing products can be a complex and challenging process, especially when different finishing recipes are involved. Because it’s crucial for manufacturers to achieve high levels of throughput while maintaining quality and efficiency, we developed a state-of-the-art simulation service for IntelliFinishing that helps manufacturers forecast potential bottlenecks and optimize their system’s performance.

How Does the IntelliFinishing Simulation Work?

To ensure its effectiveness, we require a forecast of the quantity of product per finishing recipe that the system will need to process in a given timeframe, usually within a typical shift. Using this data, we design a system model showing the sequence of operation per carrier based on the ideal recipe for the parts hung on that carrier.

Then, to create the simulation, a CAD layout is used as the foundation where each process step is defined by expected recipe variation parameters. Considering loading time, we then introduce variation into the potential recipes. For instance, some products may require a 30-minute final cure time, while others may require a 20-minute or 50-minute cure time, and there may be variations in color or pretreatment for each part.

Other examples of variations include:

• Pretreatment options like speed through a blast and timing in various stages of wash
• Dry oven timing and temperatures
• Color options and booth selection
• Booth application timing
• Cure oven timing and temperatures
• Unload timing

Finally, all variations in the system are taken into account to run the simulation. This allows you to test the effect each variable has on each part of the system, resulting in determining ideal conditions and maximized throughput.

Benefits of Using IntelliFinishing Simulation

There are many benefits to using simulation. For instance, we can identify system bottlenecks by loading various combinations of parts, recipes, and carrier requirements in advance, thereby improving system efficiency and minimizing downtime. Additionally, simulation can help identify ideal manpower requirements based on various throughput volumes and carriers per hour.

For example, it’s possible you may be experiencing a labor shortage, like so many others in the manufacturing industry. However, with simulation, we can predict the impact of the shortage on carriers and products finished per hour. So, say you use manual painting booths and are understaffed, then impact on the entire system and total throughput can be predicted.

Another area simulation could benefit is predicting the ideal number of system carriers to accomplish a desired carrier per hour rate. Often there is a sweet spot for the number of carriers operating on a large system, which — without a simulation — takes a lot of trial and error, relying more on art than science. But with a simulation, you can manipulate the variables in real time, resulting in hard data that shows a bell-shaped curve effect on throughput up to a certain point. Eventually, the system will get overloaded with carriers, causing a bottleneck and total throughput to diminish — and that is when the sweet spot is identified.

By using a simulation, you’ll gain greater efficiency and cost savings through identifying bottlenecks, optimizing manpower requirements, and predicting ideal carrier counts for a desired throughput.

IntelliFinishing: Your Finishing System and Simulation Partner

IntelliFinishing can help customers make informed decisions about their finishing system, ultimately leading to greater efficiency, cost savings, and confidence in your system’s performance.

As a lead supplier of finishing systems that offers superior performance, energy efficiency, and flexibility, you can achieve the desired level of throughput for your finishing system.

Contact us today to see if an IntelliFinishing system can help you achieve greater throughput!

The feature article in a recent issue of Powder Coated Tough Magazine features Prime Powder Coating. (Read the PCT article here.) Prime installed an Intellifinishing automated powder coating system in their new 45,000-square-foot facility. The system is custom-designed to integrate the latest in automation technology and is capable of handling significantly larger and heavier parts. As with all IntelliFinishing systems, what truly differentiates this system are the intelligent controls integration, allowing unparalleled carrier recipe customization. And because this system was especially fitted for Prime Powder’s new facility, it can also be reconfigured for future growth without experiencing downtime.

You can access the case study on the IntelliFinishing site here.

So you’re in the market for a new automated finishing system that’ll allow you to bring finishing in-house in order to optimize the speed of your production process and save money. Or, you need a new automated finishing system because your existing system just can’t keep up with demand, is prone to breakdowns, or can’t accommodate your new products or desired processes.

After some research, you’ve narrowed down your selection to a traditional overhead chain-based system such as a monorail or a power & free (P&F) system, and an IntelliFinishing system. While upfront costs will factor into your decision-making, you should also remember to estimate the operational costs of running the system, as the differences can significantly impact your bottom line. Here are five ways your IntelliFinishing system can save you money on operational expenses compared to competing traditional chain-based systems, lowering your total cost of ownership.

No chain system absorbing BTUs: The problem with heavy duty chain-based conveyors is that the chain system itself can absorb 10 to 23% of the BTUs emitted by dry off and cure ovens. This requires the system to burn more fuel to complete the finishing process leading to greatly increased natural gas and utilities costs. But your IntelliFinishing system, by using a conveyance that is mounted above and outside each oven with only the parts and hangers running through the oven has no chain to absorb and to drag heat out of the oven. The result is a more energy efficient system that doesn’t waste thousands per month in BTUs. Plus, the chain heat is constantly being distributed throughout your facility. This might be viewed as a plus in mid-winter, but it can be quite unpleasant during more moderate weather months – often making working on or near the finishing system one of the “hottest” jobs at the factory – and we don’t mean that in a good way!  By comparison, working on or near the ovens on your IntelliFinishing system will seem quite pleasant. This is also due to the highly efficient construction of the ovens, but ultimately your IntelliFinishing system will decrease your system and building cooling costs significantly. It might even make working near or on the finishing system…”cool”, too.

Doors help lock in the savings: Anyone paying a home utility bill understands the agony of seeing an open front door while the heat is on during the winter or the A/C is on in the summer: it’s throwing money right out the door. The same concept applies to finishing systems. Chain-based conveyor systems normally do not include ovens equipped with doors – unlike IntelliFinishing system ovens. Chain systems usually have wide open ovens that constantly allow heat to escape. Your IntelliFinishing system will typically use conveyor operating software to open and close oven doors as the parts are transported in and out. With your IntelliFinishing System, your parts will typically speed up to get inside the oven and then slow down or stop just inside the oven as the doors close. The doors are kept closed as much as possible and precisely at the right times though the software and conveyor system, so no more wasted heat out a wide-open door all day long! Doors on ovens help account for up to 5% of potential BTU savings per hour.

Multiple lanes reduce congestion: The same way adding another lane to a highway can reduce traffic, your IntelliFinishing system designs will typically feature multiple ovens or lanes per oven. This will allow faster curing parts to bypass slower items and increase total throughput and without affecting any other carriers of parts on the system. Multiple lanes of ovens also can have a tighter footprint than the usual single lane and serpentine ovens common on monorail or P&F systems, enabling them to fit into more concise spaces while saving at least another 1% in BTUs per hour.

IntelliFinishing reduces water use and electrical consumption: Competing finishing systems waste a lot of water and electricity because they usually run all day whether parts are present to be finished or not. But an IntelliFinishing system uses more intelligent technology to activate washes only when products are present in each wash stage. Meanwhile, each section of the conveyor turns on only when needed to move product. This is made possible because each section of track, whether it’s just a few feet up to a section of track that could be 65 feet long, is operated by either a ½ horsepower or 1 horsepower motor that turns the friction tube conveyor sections. The motors are interlocked and controlled by the software system to soft start and stop only when carriers are present and need to be transported over that section of track. For example, a 20-foot section of track, transporting a 10 foot carrier of parts, might move that carrier at 20 to 40 feet per minute depending on the purpose of the track or the process it’s travelling through. Therefore, the carrier would move across that track in 30 to 60 seconds. If the system’s production rate is 20 carriers per hour, then that carrier should have at least 3 minutes to traverse this section of track. Effectively, the motor will be off 2 to 2.5 minutes per carrier cycle and therefore not consuming any electricity during this time. Compare this to chain systems that often use large, energy-intense Caterpillar drives to move the product and the chain itself. The most common way to operate these traditional systems is to run the chains all the time during production hours no matter if products are loaded to finish or not. It’s like running your kitchen oven all day even if there isn’t any food in the oven to cook. Your energy-smart IntelliFinishing system can literally save thousands on all of your utility costs per year.

Chain systems rarely make daily capacity – ours does: Many of our former chain-system customers report they never made more than 70% to 85% of system capacity with their old or existing monorail or P&F systems. The reason for this capacity deficiency (beyond simply breakdowns…which are also common on traditional systems) is that products loaded on chains normally travel at a set speed. Any late loaded products will never close a gap. Similar gaps may occur during painting, masking/demasking or other manual or automatic processes. As a result, the finishing system will need to operate 15% to 30% longer each day to meet plant throughput expectations compared to its rated capacity. This often forces the plant to work longer to make up for the loss. For example, for facilities that operate on a 10 hour shift, this can mean running the finishing system an extra 1.5 to 3 hours longer each day or on additional shifts on weekends or off hours to make up the difference. These extra hours of system operation are just that much more utility and labor expenses. But with your IntelliFinishing system, you will have variable conveyor speeds as carriers travel through the system. Your IntelliFinishing system can increase the speed of any late-loaded products up to 20 fpm faster in non-process areas of track above ‘usual’ speeds to close gaps between carriers. Operators will have more time to handle situations where loading is taking longer than usual cycle times, or painters need more time to finish occasional complicated parts.  The system will simply catch up to previous carriers so total capacity expectations are met and the system finishes the desired daily production on time or even early.

IntelliFinishing combines smart control technology with a revolutionary friction-driven and modular conveyor that features the ability to move carriers at various speeds per section of track, the ability to change direction from forward to backward as may be desired, and the ability to optimize energy use, water use, and throughput.

The system has extremely high uptime ratings compared to traditional systems and it reduces total runtime while achieving a lower total cost of ownership so that you can invest operational savings back into your business or simply as profits.

To learn more about IntelliFinishing, click here.

The Proof’s in the Satisfaction: Customers Praise IntelliFinishing’s Maintenance

At IntelliFinishing, we believe there’s no better indicator of success and positive results than the satisfaction and happiness of our valued customers.

While our decades of experience and industry-leading finishing systems set us apart, it’s all for naught if we can’t ensure that each and every system is operating up to our lofty standards far beyond initial installation.

Is friction tube technology more difficult to maintain? How much benefit is there when compared to traditional power and free finishing systems? To answer these questions and more, we’ll look at how a few of our customer’s describe their IntelliFinishing post-purchase maintenance experience.

Plant Manager – Construction Truck OEM, Kentucky, Powder

“In the two years we’ve been running, I think we’ve only had one failure on the track. A motor went out, but we keep a spare, and we had it changed out in less than an hour.

It’s honestly been eerily quiet compared to our old line. Initially, we had concerns about maintenance for friction tube technology and felt like there was risk for issues, but that hasn’t been the case.

For me, personally…

I think it’s underestimated how much of a difference there is between the systems (IntelliFinishing vs P&F) in terms of component wear and impact.

On continuous and P&F lines, the chains are always on, and the carriers are constantly engaging and disengaging.

With IntelliFinishing, everything accelerates and decelerates, so there isn’t impact loading on any of those components, and they only operate when needed.

It’s just a different ballgame on the maintenance front than it used to be for us.”

Special Projects Manager – Conveyor OEM, Arkansas, Powder

“We have over 100 drives on our current system – ­the original system had 96.

Although we have had a couple of motors go out, they are easy to change out – it takes less than 20 minutes. We usually keep three or four in stock.

Overall, we are very pleased with the system. We have had record growth each year since our start-up.”

Continuous Improvement Leader – Industrial HVAC Equipment OEM, North Carolina, Powder

“We have not had any maintenance concerns or problems.

Our maintenance department does perform scheduled PMs, and our system runs all three shifts five to six days a week with no issues.

The only thing I can think of in the five years that we have had an IntelliFinishing system is just keeping the wheels on the carriers that make contact with the aluminum rollers checked, as they will wear out, but that’s not a big deal.”

Owner – Custom Coater, Kansas, Liquid

(NOTE: This is a smaller system using belt drives, not chain drives as are used in heavier weight systems.)

“The maintenance on the motor itself is negligible. We have not replaced any of our motors since our installation in late 2015.

Obviously, the speed the motors are run at, along with the hours per day, will have an impact on this. We are running first shift, and our motors run no faster than 30fpm.

We have replaced belts on regular scheduled maintenance and have only had one time since 2015 when we had a belt completely fail and come apart. As the system is designed, however, we were able to cut the belt free and continue running on three belts.

We replaced the broken belt at a scheduled maintenance interval. … As with anything mechanical, things can fail, but we have found the equipment with the IntelliFinishing system to be pretty robust.

As long as you monitor the trolley wheels and the motor belts, the maintenance on the drive system will be very minimal and easily scheduled.”

Manufacturing Engineer – Paint – Major Heavy Equipment OEM, Arkansas, Liquid

“I am very pleased with the reliability of the IntelliFinishing system, and the motors have not been an issue for us ever since we installed a surge protector. That would be the only thing I would recommend to do.”

Engineer – Construction Equipment OEM, Kentucky, Powder

“I know there has been some maintenance involved in the carriers and conveyor, but it hasn’t been excessive.

I would just recommend that the design of the conveyor needs to keep maintenance in mind with their particular application. For instance, our carriers go through a shot blast, and there can be buildup of metal on the bearings.

This requires us to regularly remove the debris. We ended up modifying the design of the conveyor to accommodate how and where the maintenance team wanted to perform maintenance. I’d suggest polling the maintenance team during the design.

Our cycle time is relatively high at 20 minutes per station, so we were able to complete most maintenance tasks in-line without removing a carrier.”

Maintenance Technician, Engineer – Construction Equipment OEM, Kentucky, Powder

“To be honest, I think this system is easy to maintain. Changing out drive tubes and bearings is a breeze, and, depending on the configuration, it can take less than five minutes.

It does seem overwhelming, at first, with all of the motors, but we haven’t had any issues with the motors and gear box assemblies at all. Once you learn how to program and address the VFDs for the motors, that is also a quick repair.

The new eight-point bearing assembly has held up well versus the old four-point style bearings.

The tech support for IntelliFinishing versus the other vendors on our system have been hands down the best. They answer the phone at all hours of the day or night, including weekends.

If there wasn’t a shot-blast system involved with this system, I’m positive this system’s drive tube, drive tube bearings and carrier bearing assemblies would last a lot longer than ours.”

(NOTE: The shot-blast issue addressed in this response haven’t been observed with other in-line shot blasts, and IntelliFinishing was able to provide lasting fixes for this customer.)

Process Design, Hydraulic Cylinder OEM, Nebraska, Liquid

“Coming from a long maintenance background, I, too, was concerned with all the moving parts. I was and still am a strong influence in (our company’s) decision-making, but my maintenance concerns were easily outweighed by all of the advantages that come with the IntelliFinishing conveyor.

The (company) demands of weight and density, along with a fixed footprint, challenged the conveyor weight capacity and forced the layout design to use a bias section of conveyor through our curing oven. We taxed the drive rollers and drive belts in the early days of startup. IntelliFinishing stuck to it, changing some gear ratios, powered corners, drive roller pressure, limit switch relocation and some frequency tweaks until the line was running smoothly.

It was thru this tune-up period that damage had been done to the drive spines, poly corners and quite a number or fractured drive rollers caused by the carrier stalls in the bias line oven.

It appeared my concerns of high maintenance were real, but (company) worked hard with IntelliFinishing to set up a solid maintenance program for the line. Not knowing just what to expect, we replaced all of the damaged parts and inspected everything on a regular basis.

We have been running steady now for nearly six years and, with a few small exceptions, drive belt inspection and tension is generally all we have to act on. This system runs so smooth, quiet and trouble-free that it’s easy to forget about, and we tend to take it for granted.”

The Power of IntelliFinishing

It’s evident from these testimonials that the IntelliFinishing difference extends far beyond the actual solutions themselves, and into the realms of service and maintenance.

To learn more about the IntelliFinishing system and our capabilities, visit www.intellifinishing.com.