A powder coating installation typically lasts 15 to 20 years. A choice made today therefore has a major impact on costs over the entire lifecycle. That is why ESTEE Coating Solutions invested in the UNICoater automation platform, which brings together all the data of the line. Three practical cases show what energy measurements deliver.
At a glance
- Platform
- UNICoater, ESTEE’s automation platform
- Case 1
- 81.8% more gas consumption from oven doors left open too long
- Case 2
- 26% less gas in the drying oven thanks to heat recovery from the curing oven
- Case 3
- A drying oven at 120 °C using more than a curing oven at 180 °C
Case 1: 81.8% more gas from a moment of inattention
The temperature profile of a box oven with doors shows the difference. With normal loading, with the doors briefly open, the oven uses 18.2% more energy than with closed doors. When the doors stayed open unnecessarily long, the temperature dropped from 180 °C to below 120 °C and energy consumption rose by 81.8%. The operator was spoken to, and measures followed: an adapted rail system for faster loading and unloading, segmented sliding doors and additional shielding against convection flows.
Case 2: 26% gas savings with energy recovery
The residual heat from the curing oven’s combustion gases is reused in the drying oven. By comparing consumption before and after the curing oven started, with identical loading, the saving could be calculated exactly: the drying oven’s gas consumption fell by about 26%. After the drying oven switched off, it even stayed at 90 °C without extra energy.
Case 3: a drying oven that uses more than the curing oven
The measurements showed the often underestimated impact of pretreatment on total consumption, but also that the drying oven at 120 °C used more than the curing oven at 180 °C. The explanation: the drying oven was a box oven with doors on both sides that opened simultaneously every 6 to 7 minutes. The curing oven was a box oven loaded from one side, with the doors open for only a few tens of seconds every half hour.
Conclusion
With simple data analysis, we reduce the lifecycle cost of an installation in a very practical way. And it is not a one-off exercise, but a continuous improvement process. Measuring is saving energy. Read more about UNICoater and sustainability.
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