Finishing solutions for wheel and rim manufacturers

Wheels are used in many different applications including cars, heavy-duty lorries, ATVs, motorcycles, and buses. Wheels are coated with a variety of materials to provide finishes that vary from luxurious metallic chrome for sports cars to matte black for off-road vehicles. No matter what the style, the wheel must have a finish that is visually appealing and tough enough to stand up to the scuffs and scrapes of everyday use.

 

In today’s competitive marketplace, wheel manufacturers are always looking for ways to make their products last longer, look better, and meet stringent consumer demands. To do this, their finishing equipment must handle many different types of coatings. 

Chrome rims often have a customised chrome finish with a tinted or coloured clear coat. Painted wheels need a glossy mirrored finish with the toughness of a protective coating. 

Often a metallic flake is used to provide a painted surface with a metallic appearance. The metallic flake can cause issues with the gear pump feed systems and dosing technology used to apply this material.

 

Graco’s ProMix PD2K Auto utilises a unique technology to overcome these obstacles. The positive displacement dosing technology is an extremely accurate dosing pump that provides consistent flow and ratio control with even the most difficult materials. Whether the material is low or high viscosity, abrasive, or has metallic flakes in it, the PD2K will deliver consistent and precise control to ensure the necessary product appearance. Pairing this superior dosing technology with Graco’s Pro Xpc Auto and ProBell electrostatic applicators will provide the correct tools to do the job. Both have excellent atomisation and the added value of electrostatics to ensure uniform coverage and low waste transfer efficiency by leveraging the attractive forces of the electrostatically charged paint and the metal wheels.