Have you noticed lately that your paint line isn’t producing the quality it once did?
Are your substrates weighing less as a finished product?
Are your thickness measurements showing less versus more?
Have you noticed more overspray in your paint booth?
Are your robots wearing more paint than your substrates?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions you certainly have something going wrong in your paint process, not to mention your increased costs of paint as well as your amount of scrap and rework.
There are many different factors that can contribute to problems within the paint process. Some examples are:
- The manufacturer changed the composition of the paint
- Something is wrong with the paint nozzles
- There is a bug in the programming
So you spend countless hours going through this and everything has checked out but the output remains the same. Have you checked your system to insure you are maintaining an adequate ground for your paint process? Oh, I am assuming you ARE grounding, right?
The grounding process is not glamorous or fun, but it can make or break your success in producing a great paint job. I would always recommend that you check the resistance between the substrate and your most solid connection to your paint line conveyor. My guess is you will find a reading well above 1 Mega Ohm (some have had infinite readings which means no ground at all) which for many means a poor ground and a bad paint job. It all comes down to making sure you have solid connections throughout your paint process which allows the charges to flow as the paint line requires.
Some things to check are:
- Do you have good connections between the substrate and carrier?
- Does the carrier have a solid connection to the conveyor?
- How frequently is the conveyor track cleaned and connectivity checked (I have received answers such as never or very rarely)?
- Does the conveyor ground tie into the ground connection for your paint delivery system?
This may all sound like simple paint line solutions, but these issues are the most common areas to check when quality deteriorates. Proper maintenance and diligence to grounding is key to providing a great paint output. Adding a grounding assembly (or straps) can be a great inexpensive insurance policy which will help produce a consistent high quality paint output while reducing the cost of scrap, rework and overspray.
For more information on grounding and static electricity in industry, you can check out our whitepaper.
Mueller Electric can also help design the custom assembly perfect for your application.