Applied Coating Technologies (ACT) is using advanced high capacity robotic spraying lines and part recoginition software to drive major productivty gains in cosmetic finishing of internal automotive parts at the company’s Oldbury, West Midlands facility.
ACT is one of very few companies in the UK able to coat large mouldings with its new robotic plant accommodating mouldings up to 1.5m in length. Parts of varying sizes and geometries can be loaded onto the track during any production run and part recognition software allows a barcode on each jig to be read with the robot spraying the associated programme. In addition, paint is mixed automatically to a pre-programmed setting as each part reaches the spray gun. These features ensure maximum paint transfer efficiency, resulting in lower costs – ACT now achieves an average RFT (right first time) rate higher than 95%.
In addition, the company has very close working relationships with many of the UK’s leading injection moulders, Tier 1 Automotive suppliers and OEMs, enabling a full sub-contract service to be provided, whereby ACT manages the procurement of the injection mouldings and delivers JIT on a continual transport loop.
Christine Hancock ACT‘s commercial director commented, “It is a testament to our technical and engineering teams that the robotics line was established in the space of nine months to meet very tight deadlines set by the requirements of a major Tier 1 supplier for spraying various internal parts from small speaker grills to a 1.3m wide dashboard moulding for use in Jaguar Land Rover’s XE, XF and F-Pace models.”
She continued, “The success of this project has so far helped to create 27 new jobs at ACT and has seen our Tipton Road site become a leading sub-contract painter for the automotive industry. The site now has three robotic spraying lines and coats both interior and exterior trim components in finishes ranging from single-coat matt black to Atlas Chrome and Narvik Black.”
The addition of a third robotic line at Tipton Road meant that ACT also needed to relocate its existing manual coating business to a new dedicated facility at Park Lane in Oldbury. All manual spraying is now done at the new site which has been established as one of the largest facilities in the UK for manual spraying of cosmetic and functional coatings. The company serves over 100 customers and paints over 500 different products from this facility.
Both facilities coupled with over 30 years of experience in application of coatings make ACT the ideal partner for OEM’s and injection moulders who require high quality and the best technical and customer support available in the industry.
ACT is accredited to BS EN ISO 9001:2008.
