American Trim, headquartered in Lima, Ohio, provides services such as product design, tooling and process development, metal forming, metal finishing, and product/component assembly for the home appliance, transportation, building products and consumer products industries. Applying porcelain enamel coatings is among the company's metal finishing processes. American Trim's Erie Division in Erie, Pa., had been using conventional paint guns with components designed for high-wear applications. However, according to Joe Bricher, process engineer, the old-style guns required a significant amount of maintenance. "The gun components wore out quickly due to the abrasive nature of the porcelain enamel. We had to replace the guns a couple of times per week on average. We also had trouble with clogging, which required additional maintenance and created some product quality issues," Bricher says.
展开▼
