Coil Coating Reduces Costs for Transportation Products
In today’s competitive environment, reducing costs is often the best path to remaining profitable. The transportation goods industry has been able to drastically reduce production costs by turning to prepainted metal for key parts. Below are some examples of industry cost savings:
1) Automotive manufacturers have discovered that using pre-primed substrates can produce big savings. By moving the priming process out of the plant, some in-process materials are no longer needed. More importantly, eliminating some spraying operations not only saves product costs, but also reduces the cost of environmental compliance.
2) Motorcycle producers have found that they can stamp out gas tanks without the use of wet oils when they use metal strip that has been pretreated with dry lubricants. Lubricating the metal on a coil coating line saves several steps in the production process, again saving material and environment compliance costs.
3) Prepainted steel is used significantly in truck-trailer bodies. Because even the decorative stripes can be coil applied, this saves labor and produces a highly durable coating that can withstand the demands of constant exposure to the road and weather including dirt and diesel residue.
4) Tractor trailer manufacturers also have found savings by using steel coated with zinc-rich weldable primers. The steel arrives at the plant cleaned, free of oil, and ready for further production and post painting, saving an enormous amount of work in-house.
5) Producers of trailer van panels have found that using prepainted steel and aluminum with polyester and acrylic coatings, which can be silk-screened, perform beautifully on the road for many years. Although white is a popular color, a wide array of colors—from the brightest to the darkest and everything in between—and textures are available.
6) Tractor Trailer manufacturers recently introduced aerodynamic chassis side skirts that are made with prepainted metal. The chassis side skirts pay for themselves with fuel efficiency improvements of 6% over the life of the tractor trailer.
