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Rapid color-change helps lead to manufacturer’s dramatic
production increases
By Matthew J. Little, Editor
mlittle@pfonline.com
 At
first glance, Maysteel’s manufacturing
facility in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, looks like a typical
stamping and metal fabrication operation. But a closer look
at its manufacturing process, and its finishing line in particular,
reveals an operation that is anything but typical. Maysteel’s
Precision Enclosures Group manufactures furniture, and electrical
and telecommunications enclosures for a blue-Maysteel’s
Precision Enclosures Group manufactures furniture, and electrical
and telecommunications enclosures for clients such as IBM, Cisco,
Allen Bradley, Rowe and Haworth. chip roster of clients—including
IBM, Cisco, Allen Bradley, Rowe and Haworth. The parts that
Maysteel manufactures range from small fan plate enclosures
to large computer
server cabinets and even larger vending machine bodies. Competition
can get pretty intense for outsource manufacturing, so Maysteel
works hard to keep its big-name customers satisfied by keeping
its costs inline and its quality high. Consistent quality gives
the company an edge, but the ability to turn on a dime for its
customers really sets Maysteel apart. “Through our prototype
center, we have the ability to quickly design and develop new
products so we can respond right away to our customers’
production needs,” said George Bush,
manufacturing engineer, Paint/Assembly. “Our biggest strength
is our ability to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.”
Until last year, Maysteel relied on a labor-intensive liquid
coating operation for its fi nishing
line. However, the manufacturer wanted to improve product quality
while increasing production capacity. With more than 60 standard
colors used on its finishing line, that also meant Maysteel
needed effi cient, quick-color change capabilities.
“We absolutely had to have quick color change because
of the diversity of products we coat and our lean manufacturing
production schedules,” said Mr. Bush. Seeking a powder-coating
solution to this requirement, Maysteel set two ambitious goals—spray-to-waste
color changes in six minutes and reclaim-to-reclaim in 15 minutes.
Maysteel selected the ColorMax® system from Nordson, which
appeared to offer the fast, easy color changes. To prove it,
May-steel spent a week at the Nordson customer testing lab,
running and re-running dozens of its parts.
The New Finishing Line
Convinced the booth would work, May-steel wasted no time in
making the switch to powder. The company built a new environmental
room and installed the powder spray system for automated coating,
and two Nordson® Versa-Coat® walk-in booths for pre-
and post-reinforcement. In less than 24 hours, Maysteel’s
coating operation went from wet to total powder and was back
to full production levels in only three days.
Maysteel coats a variety of substrates for its customers, such
as cold-rolled and electrogalvanized
steel, G-30 material and aluminum. To properly treat such a
range of materials, products enter the powder coating operation
by way of an eight-stage pretreatment process built by ITS.
Parts then move into a 325F dry-off oven before moving into
the environmentally
controlled coating room. Because of the complex confi gurations
of a number of products coated, Maysteel typically
uses a combination of the three spray booths during the coating
process. Parts enter a walk-in spray booth, where one operator
manually applies powder to the Faraday cage areas where automatic
guns cannot reach. A part identification system then identifi
es the parts and selects parameters for gun triggering and gun
positioning before moving into the spray booth. There, 16 automatic
Nordson® Sure Coat® spray guns apply powder anywhere
from two to five mils, depending on customer specifications.
The system has two 16-gun feed centers with the capability to
feed from a 50-lb box or 75-lb fl uidized hopper.
Parts are then conveyed to another walk-in booth where two operators
manually apply powder for post-touch up of inside corners of
boxes, if needed. Maysteel also uses the pre- and post-reinforcement
manual booths to coat smaller one- or two-piece color runs.
According to Mr. Bush, the three-booth system is ideal for Maysteel’s
lean production schedules. “Altogether, the system gives
us the most fl exibility to meet each customer’s unique
needs.”
Powder coating materials are supplied by Sherwin-Williams, IVC
Industrial Coatings, HB Fuller, Morton, DuPont and Interpon.
Following the coating process, parts move to a curing oven for
25 minutes, typically baking at 365F before being conveyed to
an assembly area. The finishing line runs at a constant 14 fpm,
with a complete trip from the hanging area to assembly area
lasting two hours.
The Multicolored Pluses of Powder
“We’ve increased line densities, even doublingthem
in some cases, through automation and quick, cost-effective
color changes,” said Mr. Bush.
For example, where Maysteel previously hung six 12-inch cabinet
drawer fronts on the finishing line, nine are now being hung.
Where one cabinet hung before on a four-foot center, now two
are hung. Parts are hung and coated.
All information in this website are from http://www.nordson.com,
which is our parent website.
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