LINETEC PAINT PROCESS

After pretreatment, products are racked horizontally on a 960-foot long overhead conveyor that travels up to 24 feet per minute. Material falling within certain size parameters can be finished on our primary production line. Material falling within the oversize parameters can be finished on our flexline. If your material exceeds these limitations, please contact Linetec for a review of your requirements.

Booths 1 & 2 are used to apply the primer coat, using the electrostatic rotary atomizing bells. The rotary bells apply a high voltage charge to the coating materials at the point of atomization. This electrostatic charge allows a more efficient, uniform application of coating materials to the front edges, sides and back of your product.

Booths 3 & 4 are used to apply approximately 70% of the total coating. We have three automatic rotary atomization bells in each booth for a total of six bells. Our state-of-the-art systems use horizontal and vertical electric eyes to control each bell’s proximity to your product. This, coupled with the automatic color changes and versa view control panels that control all of the bell operations, provide Linetec the capability to apply the best finish in the industry.

Booths 5 & 6 are manual electrostatic hand spray booths. The location of these booths behind our primary bell booths allow us to paint those areas the automatic equipment cannot reach. Our topcoat painters are skilled craftsmen who, through classroom training and many years of experience, apply a superior finish.

Booths 7 & 8 are electrostatic bell booths configured the same as Booths 3 and 4 to give us the flexibility to paint many different types of profiles and meet the diverse requirements of our customers. Both booths 7 and 8 also have the ability to be used as reinforcing booths for difficult material or hard to cover paints prior to clear coating.

Booths 9 & 10 are manual electrostatic and non-electrostatic hand spray booths. These booths give our applicators the ability to reinforce or “target shoot” those areas that are more difficult to paint because of recesses or areas affected by Faraday Cage (the attraction of charged paint particles to the nearest surface). These booths also are used to apply “clear coat”. Clear coat is used as another protective layer to enhance the endurance and weather resistance of our paints, especially metallic’s and other exotic colors.

After emerging from the paint coating booths, your product is conveyed through a flash-off area and into our 272-foot long, four-stage gas powered convection oven. For proper cure of 70% fluoropolymer paint finishes the aluminum must reach a peak metal temperature (PMT) of 450 degrees Fahrenheit for at least ten minutes. Our oversize oven allows us to run at cooler temperatures and still reach specified metal temperatures and bake times because of the increased “dwell time.”

Heavy tubes and thick walled products must be baked at higher temperatures than thinner material to bring the metal to required temperatures in the allotted time. Oven temperature is monitored with temperature gauges, and heat tapes are placed on your product to assure that PMT was reached. Line speed is also regulated to make sure the necessary amount of dwell time is achieved.

After the paint has cured, material is inspected by our quality assurance team for color, gloss, mil thickness, appearance and multiple other performance specifications.