Paints / lacquers

The Solution

Automated bulk materials handling in the manufacture of coating powders

• Depending on the proportion of raw material components in the formulation and depending on which containers they are delivered in, the materials are either stored in outdoor silos or made available to the production process directly from big bags and sacks.
• The outdoor silos can also be used to store thermosensitive resins or titanium dioxide (TiO₂). These raw materials are discharged safely from the silos and transferred to the fully automatic weighing station using vacuum conveying. Feed vessels are refilled constantly to ensure that the weighing station is used efficiently.
• The vacuum conveying scales are on the same level as the big bag and sack discharge stations above the AZO COMPONENTER® container system, which is responsible for central weighing of the formulation into a mixing container
• The materials in big bags and bagged goods are discharged directly into feeding vessels; from there, they are then weighed into the target receptacle, i.e. the mixing container, using frequency-controlled dosing screws.
• Depending on the formulation and the resultant weighing accuracy required, the raw materials are weighed incrementally into the mixing container or stored upstream in weighing containers and weighed from there using the loss-in-weight method.
• Once the batch formulation is ready, the mixing container is ejected from the AZO COMPONENTER® and sent to the mixing process
• The entire production process from storage of raw materials through to mixer feeding is documented in batch protocols.
• The Kastor process control and instrumentation system with formulation management ensures that production is both reliable and efficient and that the plant and the container mixer operate at maximum capacity.