Make Your E-Coat System 'Mind Its Own Business' Using Simple Electronic Automation to Monitor Critical System Parameters

摘要

Watch the tank levels, check the chemicals, watch the temperature, monitor the pressure, adjust the pH, check the thickness… these are just a few of the many functions that the typical ecoat technician must constantly perform. The Ecoat Tech has the demanding job of ensuring that the process parameters for the pretreat and ecoat paint systems are constantly within specification. There are hundreds of system parameters to watch. If any one of these parameters gets out of specification, this deviation could cause a system upset and create hundreds of paint defects. Clearly, one individual cannot constantly monitor all of these parameters at the level of attention that is necessary. In an effort to assist the ecoat technicians, the Finishing Team at Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc.'s Sedalia, Missouri steel wheel manufacturing facility added automated system monitoring to the ecoat system. Our team analyzed cost vs. cause of issues that created paint defects. It was clear that the first areas to tackle were our paint tank level control and post rinse filtration systems. Due to the age of our ecoat system, state of the art controls were non-existent. For our initial automation, we decided to install individual, low cost, stand alone monitoring alarms at key locations.