In spring 2022, Florian Chlupka and Robert Gojani decided to give up their permanent jobs and start a coating job shop of their own. Both knew hundreds of coating companies from the inside, one as a powder salesman, the other as a buyer of coating work. Magazin für Oberflächentechnik devoted a five-page article to them in issue 4/2024. ESTEE built the plant together with its partners EBS Licher and DOK-Chemie.
At a glance
- Customer
- NanoCoat GmbH, Lüdinghausen (Germany)
- Investment
- EUR 2.5 million
- Pretreatment
- Polypropylene tunnel with 4 chambers (2 active baths, 5 rinses, nano-ceramic passivation), wastewater-free
- Ovens
- Hybrid, electric or propane, prepared for hydrogen
- Automation
- UNICoater, also operable via smartphone
- Publication
- Magazin für Oberflächentechnik 4/2024, pp. 20 to 24
Pretreatment as the foundation
Their market analysis within a 50 km radius showed that 11 of 13 coating shops have no process-reliable pretreatment. At NanoCoat it became the heart of the line. It is the first polypropylene tunnel in Germany. Water drains off PP much faster than off stainless steel, so the line gets by with 16,000 litres of bath volume instead of almost 19,000. That means 20% less volume, chemicals and heating. Cascades and dosing pumps replenish automatically, and an evaporator and reverse osmosis ensure wastewater-free operation.
Energy used economically
- The DOK-Chemie chemistry works at 40°C instead of the usual 50 to 55°C, and the conversion coating even at room temperature.
- Waste heat from the burner chamber of the curing oven helps the drying oven.
- The pretreatment runs largely on waste heat from the ovens and the cooling zone.
- Air locks on the curing oven and the drying oven limit the temperature drop on entry to a maximum of 8°C.
Built for tomorrow
- The Power & Free system was planned from the start for a second, automatic booth. It is now being added.
- All consumption and orders are recorded in UNICoater, and the line can be operated remotely.
The result
One year after the start, the order books are full. Since March 2024 NanoCoat has been running two shifts with 15 employees, and the storage area has already had to be extended twice.
Source: “Mit Mut und Knowhow zum Erfolg”, Magazin für Oberflächentechnik, volume 78, issue 4/2024, pp. 20 to 24.
Also read how ESTEE built the NanoCoat line
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