Irus Mix in the practical test

Irus Mix in the practical test

“Determine the color, put the can in, press the button – the machine does the rest,” explains Stefan Dvorak, managing director of the family business of the same name in Bruck an der Leitha, which his grandfather founded in 1947. The “machine” is called “Irus Mix”, comes from Axalta and is currently the fastest fully automatic mixing system in the world. Behind the glazed front of the approximately 2.5 meter high cabinet there are up to 120 containers of premium mixed paints from the Standox brand. After entering the color on the control computer, a robot arm moves through the individual containers in no time and collects the required colors drop by drop in the correct mixing ratio and in the ordered quantity. When he's finished, he puts the can in the output compartment. The painter removes it from there, mixes the mixture manually to achieve a uniform color and connects it to the paint gun. “This saves us a lot of time, which can now be used for other things such as preparatory work,” sums up Stefan Dvorak after using the Irus Mix in practice for a few days. He adds: "In addition, the color accuracy is much higher. Manually you can mix with a maximum accuracy of a tenth of a gram, whereas the machine mixes with an accuracy of up to a 500th of a gram."

When company founder Franz Dvorak was still mainly painting carriages in the 1950s, he learned about the newly developed synthetic resin paint from the paint manufacturer Herberts, which it offered under the brand name “Standox”. Dvorak tried out the new paint in his workshop and was so impressed by its benefits that he became the first Standox customer in Austria in 1955. “My father and I have also remained loyal to the brand to this day,” says Stefan Dvorak. Together with two employed painters, the master now carries out around 500 car repairs per year; the range of customers ranges from private car owners from the region to large car dealerships. In addition, bodywork expert Dvorak and four other employees are active in the areas of painting and painting, floor laying, paint specialists and sign painting and also run a copy shop. “I passed the master’s examination in all professions because I have always been interested in working with colors in all areas,” says Stefan Dvorak. When it comes to body repairs, which account for about a third of the company's sales, Dvorak is in line with the trend toward repairing older vehicles. His new Irus Mix mixing machine also lives up to the associated principle of sustainability. “We have significantly lower remaining quantities than before, the doses are really taught down to the last drop.”