Keywords
Citation
(1999), "Radical technology developed", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 46 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.1999.12846fab.011
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Radical technology developed
Radical technology developed
Keywords: Gravatom, Awards, Coatings, Thermoplastics
Gravatom Engineering Systems Limited has won a SMART award to enable the development of a specialist plastics coating machine (Plate 1). The award follows proposals for a radically different machine design that will apply linings to the inside of fire extinguishers increasing, we are informed, throughput from 24 units an hour to 360 units an hour!
Plate 1Gravatom's project manager, Simon Burnett, and business development manager,
Chris Elkins, display the SMART award
Only engineering projects of outstanding technical merit can qualify for SMART funding and Gravatom had to overcome a number of fundamentally challenging engineering problems. Fire extinguisher manufacturers seek to increase throughput and decrease consumption of the thermoplastics material used in linings. To reduce material consumption, the lining must be as thin as possible and its engineering design team had to change from a traditional gravity-fed method to an electrostatic spray technique.
The electrostatic spraying technology is understood when used with polyesters, but is still to be proven for use with thermoplastics. The project requires the development of new plastics powders, suitable for the application method, before tests to validate adhesion, flow, structural integrity and life expectancy can be completed. Gravatom's partner in the project is the materials specialist Plascoat Systems Limited, with whom Gravatom already manufactures coating machines.
Coupled with the materials science and application technology, the automation requirements of the new machine involved thermodynamics, aerodynamics, mechatronics, control systems work as well as mechanical and process engineering.
The successful completion of the SMART project will have important ramifications for other industries requiring coatings of cylindrical linings, such as construction pipe work and fittings, some components of which have complex internal and external forms.