Climate change in the paint booth

Climate change in the paint booth

We are already feeling the Corona crisis in retail," says Andreas Graf, managing director of the Graf car dealership in Kirchberg am Wagram in Lower Austria. He speaks of sales declines of around ten percent in 2020. Of course, people in the workshop also worked through the lockdown, and things are going very well here, especially in the in-house plumbing shop. Graf bought a new system for this at the beginning of the year: the Paint PerformAir from Akzo Nobel. The Graf car dealership was a pioneer in Austria - The system was the second to be installed in this country. In the meantime, more than ten systems of this new type are already in operation throughout Austria. 
This is not the only reason why the paint and coating specialist Akzo Nobel is able to remain on a growth path in Austria even in the crisis year of 2020. “Of course we also felt a decline in March and April, but thanks to new products and customers we will achieve good growth over the year as a whole,” reports Austrian sales manager Daniel Kapeller. 
The currently unique subsidies such as the Covid-19 investment bonus, a non-repayable grant worth 7% of the acquisition costs, which increases further if investments in greening or digitalization are supported, are helpful. In addition, there are sometimes also various state subsidies, which means that a new purchase is often particularly attractive at the moment. According to the list, the system (device and installation) costs around 37,000 euros. In order for customers to receive full support for funding for their Paint PerformAir, Akzo Nobel is cooperating with the management consultancy funds4yourbiz. 

Short payback period

In any case, the system should pay for itself quickly; Kapeller speaks of a short payback period. For good reason: The Paint PerformAir leads to significant savings in energy (up to 70 percent) and materials. Kapeller reports on a case study: a VW that would normally require 143 grams of base coat for the door and fender, but only 90 grams with the Paint PerformAir. Last but not least, there is a not insignificant time saving: “With the Paint PerformAir, one more pass per day is easily possible,” says Kapeller. In this respect, this system makes sense if there are two vehicle passes per day. 
But how does it all work? The highlight is that the hose system is coated with hot water, so that the compressed air required in the device is heated to 40° C. This means that drying begins as soon as the paint gun is used, and the paint booth does not have to be preheated to 60 degrees and then cooled back to room temperature after the drying process is complete in order to be able to add the next body parts. With Paint PerformAir, the temperature in the hall is constantly only around 20 degrees, which makes work much more pleasant for the painter. This in turn is confirmed by Tomislav Stipancevic, who was able to look over the shoulder of the automotive industry while he was working on site at the Graf car dealership. 

Increased efficiency

For the workshop operator – Graf, whose father founded the company as a one-man business in 1975 and now employs 38 people – there is a saving of energy and time. Because of the heating and cooling process in the conventional process, not only is the cabin blocked for a long time during the painting process, valuable energy is also wasted. The Paint PerformAir works much more efficiently. By shortening the flash-off and drying times, the cabin capacity can be increased by, for example, 20-35%. 
In addition, the painting result is better, as this usually depends heavily on the ambient conditions. When the humidity is low in winter, the base coat dries too quickly, whereas air-drying clear coats dry very slowly. With the Paint PerformAir, the surfaces are not statically charged and by standardizing the environmental conditions, a consistently high quality of painting is achieved. The manufacturer puts the material savings by avoiding overspray at 20 – 35% for base coats. The device is the size of a refrigerator and is offered as both a mobile and a stationary system.