North Eastern Powder Coatings Ltd

Company Profile

NEP is a busy family run and owned general powder coating company employing approximately forty staff and running two production shifts. The business has been built on quality and customer service. NEP coats a varied range of metals in varying compositions and sizes. The correct preparation of metals is of critical importance to achieve a high quality finish of which customers have now come to expect from NEP.

The Problem

NEP has always prepared metals for coating by hand initially wiping with gun wash, and then etch priming any aluminium. This had been extremely labour intensive and the pre-treatment department had always been the bottle neck of the production process.

NEP had looked at various automated in line pre-treatment systems but the variety of work they coated had always prevented the implementation of any automated plant.

The Auto-Wash Solution

Traditionally NEP had between three and five operatives hand wiping all items, but now one person can easily unload several pallets of work into the Auto-Wash, and in less than twenty minutes several hours worth of powder coating work is ready.

The Auto-Wash is now used to pre-treat and wash nearly all work prior to powder coating. This has not only drastically increased capacity in the pre-treatment department but has also allowed NEP to reduce the work force needed in this department.

The Auto-Wash has also simplified the pre-treatment area as the same process can now be used for steel and aluminium preventing the need for a second process because the aluminium is phosphated ready for coating.

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