New paint plant reduces lead times for Swegon
Swegon Air Management has reduced manufacturing lead times for its Air Diffusion range of internal ventilation grilles and diffusers with the installation of a state-of-the-art paint plant. The £150 000 investment enables the company to bring painting in house, dramatically speeding up the process and cutting lead times for customers.
With special bespoke products, the improvement is even greater as internal painting enables lead times to be reduced significantly and for defects to be remedied in minutes. ‘The improvement has surprised even us,’ said senior manufacturing manager Mark Peters.
The plant consist of two bays that enable the process to switch between colours rapidly or to double capacity if there is particularly high demand. 80% of units are painted white, a fall from 90% as the sales force has taken advantage of the greater flexibility offered by the plant to give customers a wider choice of bespoke colours.
The use of powder paints avoids the use of potentially polluting solvents. A recovery system for the powder recycles over-spray, significantly reducing waste.
Production supervisor Craig Jones said, ‘It has been a revelation, We worked closely with expert consultants when designing the new plant and have recruited a specialist to carry out the painting, and there is more training planned.’
