The team in the powder coating department at International Extrusion’s Garden City, Michigan, plant calls their new vertical coating system ‘Black Widow.’
Nick NoeckerFor INTEX President Nick Noecker, he calls the new system a game-changer for his company, an aluminum extrusion manufacturer that offers a wide range of deliverables in variable billet sizes for industrial or commercial applications.
The powder coat system installed in 2021 is also the first of its kind in the U.S., a CUBE Plus system developed by Surface Aluminum Technologies (SAT) based in Italy and a division of Gema.
Black Widow can coat extrusions up to 24.5 feet in length in a variety of standard and customized colors.
‘Investing in Ourselves’ with New Equipment
The powder is applied on both sides of the extrusion using 16 automatic Gema OptiGun GA03-P guns.“This is really about investing in ourselves, instead of taking money out of the company,” says Noecker, whose family started the company in 1965.
INTEX has its headquarters in Garden City and, in 2019, added a new facility in Livonia, where they also have additional aluminum extrusion, CNC fabrication, and custom powder coating processes. Together, their two campuses have over 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
The company’s horizontal line is still in operation, but for the last several years, Noecker has been working to obtain a new vertical powder coating system that would meet the company’s needs today and down the road.
But he first wanted to make sure the INTEX finances were in order and the space available.
“We are trying to make all the right investments that are sound for our company, says Noecker, whose company invested in a new 3,000-ton extrusion press in 2019 and another new 3,000-ton press in 2022, as well.
“Luckily, once we make a decision on something, we can act a lot faster than most companies do,” Noecker says. “We knew we really wanted to get this system in our facility and get things going.”
Delayed Installation in 2020
INTEX also installed SAT’s Vision System, a camera-managed technology that recognizes and matches profile geometries that are loaded on the line in order to automatically trigger best practice recipe settings for the powder coating process.Why the best-laid plans of company presidents are often moved forward with ease, the pandemic of 2020 and beyond caused major problems for INTEX’s ability to get the equipment ordered and installed at their Michigan location.
To make room for the new SAT CUBE system, the company disassembled and moved an older press out of the way, remodeling half of the Garden City building, and then raised the roof to 60 feet to accommodate the tall vertical powder coating system.
So far, so good. But unfortunately, when the installation crew from SAT in Italy arrived in Detroit in late 2020 to begin the assembly process, the U.S. Immigration Department immediately sent them back home because of COVID concerns.
Without an installation crew, INTEX had to sit on the project while SAT and U.S. officials cleared up the crew’s ability to come work in the U.S. When those issues were finally ironed out, the installation process began, and the system was commissioned in January of this year.
Noecker and his team are certainly pleased with the results thus far.
“This system is a lot more consistent as far as powder coating coverage,” he says. “And its significantly less wear-and-tear on our employees, who were bending down and wrangling these extrusions for eight hours at a time. A lot of our concern in getting this system was not only the quality of the job but also the quality of life for our employees.”
First CUBE Plus in North America
Christ MerrittChris Merritt, General Manager for North America at Gema, says that SAT has installed many other vertical powder coating systems in the U.S. and two in Mexico, but that the INTEX system is the first for the CUBE Plus in North America.
Merritt says the SAT CUBE Plus design is the result of many years of research and development by SAT’s technical department to provide a compact, affordable solution.
“Product density is truly the key to the CUBE Plus system,” he says. “You can hang vertically — depending on the type of extrusion — standard from 100mm to 1,000mm as required to maximize production density.”
Additionally, Merritt says most extrusions have to be coated from both sides, which is a challenge for horizontal lines coaters requiring specialized hangers, which require cleaning and storage. Horizontal lines a limited by their envelope size to possibly seven feet on most extrusions due to height requirements for the load and unload areas, regardless of the extrusion lengths required. As a result, vertical applications are far more practical for extrusions that are up to 24 to 30 feet.
“The extrusion has to be supported multiple times on a horizontal line, which isn’t the case when it is hung vertically,” he says. “You may get eight to 10 parts per side depending on the profile, and you have to coat from both sides, so the guns are shooting across or a lot of open space.”
That set-up for large extrusions can cause problems for uniformity of the coating on the part, Merritt says, as well as target-distance issues. Plus, vertical extrusions require just one hook at the top.
“Density is also an issue because you simply can’t put the parts that close together on a horizontal line,” he says. “And there are also the handling issues that come up with extruded parts that long. When you have to move a 30-feet rack through a plant, it is always going to be hard to make turns.”
Conveyor Speed of 5.0 to 6.5 FPM and 4,800 Extrusions Per Day
SAT CEO Andrea Trevisan, Gema's Chris Merritt, and INTEX's Nick Noecker.Noecker says the new vertical line has been highly efficient so far. It has a conveyor speed of about 5.0 to 6.5 feet per minute, which allows INEX the ability to coat about 4,800 extrusion profiles each shift.
“We can see already that this system is a lot more consistent in the coverage,” Noecker says. “Overall, we are producing better cost rates than our competitors.”
IFS Coatings is supplying the powder to INTEX, and Noecker says he is very pleased with how they have worked closely with his company as they have grown and expanded.
“IFS has always done a great job of earning our business, and they are our biggest supplier this year,” Noecker says. “Their products allow us to have the ability powder coat just about anything that we need to.”
IFS Coatings offers three types of architectural grade powder to shops like INTEX:
- IFS 500FP is a FEVE fluoropolymer that is equivalent to 70% PVDF but with a more sustainable footprint and a 20-year warranty when applied by registered applicators.
- IFS 400SD is super durable with a 10-year warranty when applied to aluminum by registered applicators.
- IFS 300SP is a standard polyester perfect for interior or lower-value exterior applications.
As well as the IFS architectural color palette, which includes solid colors, metallics, and anodized effect powders, “IFS Match,” the IFS Color Matching Service allows coaters to get the exact shade they are looking for in an environmentally responsible, durable coating. In addition, IFS can also change the gloss or add metallic/mica or textures to the product.
New Powder Management Control System
The system can coat extrusions up to 24.5 feet in length in a variety of standard and customized colors.The powder is applied on both sides of the extrusion using 16 automatic Gema OptiGun GA03-P guns that utilize the Smart in-line AP01 dense phase powder delivery system. The guns are controlled using the Gema OptiCenter OC07 powder management control system, and Merritt says combining the CUBE technology with Gema controls allows the INTEX’s line to deliver a high first-pass transfer efficiency, which ensures less powder consumption and excellent material utilization, and better final product quality. It also provides a quick color change time of around 8-10 minutes.
INTEX also installed SAT’s Vision System, a camera-managed technology that recognizes and matches profile geometries that are loaded on the line in order to automatically trigger best practice recipe settings for the powder coating process.
A big advantage of the new system is having a smaller footprint than a traditional horizontal coating line that coats such large extrusions.
“This new system is about 30% of the footprint of a typical system,” Merritt says. “Turning the long extrusions in a typical horizontal line has always been a problem. You need lots of room to turn a 26-foot part, and then it turns out to be almost all unusable space.”
More Efficient Equipment On Extrusion, Coating Side
Noecker says the new vertical system is breathing new life into INTEX, which his father purchased in 1949. At the time, they were doing commercial and residential windows, as well as door frames. In the 1990s, Noecker decided to focus exclusively on extrusions and coatings, which by then had converted to powder after a major fire caused by liquid paints nearly put the company out of business.
Now with over 260 employees and newer, more efficient equipment both on the extrusion side and the coating side of the business, INTEX finds itself ready to broaden even further into other industries.
“Our business is evolving, and we are opening our doors to different markets,” Noecker says. “It’s not just the powder coating that has opened doors for us, it is the better equipment for us on the extrusion side, and all of that now allows us to deliver a premium product.”
Visit https://www.extrusion.net, https://www.gemapowdercoating.com, and https://www.ifscoatings.com
