Automotive OEM Sustainably Powers Up

To keep up with production demands and to meet sustainability goals, the paint process engineer of an established automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) needed to upgrade the paint mix room of a major assembly plant.

For years, alternating current (AC) electric pumps had been powering an automated finishing line that uses electrostatics to spray waterborne coatings. Water-based paint lessens the factory’s carbon footprint because it does not contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that release toxic fumes into the air. To safely apply the environmentally friendly coating with electrostatics, the manufacturer isolates the charged paint in 24 canisters. When the canisters are emptied, as many as 24 must be reloaded within seconds. 

Paint circulation system demands often challenged the old equipment. With regular circulation pressures above 200 psi, and intermittent flow rate peaks, the legacy pumps could fill a maximum of 11 canisters before faltering. Low pressure faults would halt production until pump cycle rates were corrected.

The paint process engineer had experience using pumps from Graco and Binks at other factories. Since the Binks equipment tended to have high maintenance costs, he asked Complete Automation, a leading industrial integrator known for turnkey paint circulation system installation, about Graco solutions. 

The automotive factory’s new paint circulation pumps not only needed to work well under high pressure, they also had to save energy within a small footprint. Floor space for each pump needed to stay within 17 by 20 inches.

Complete Automation recommended trying to Graco’s newest electric paint circulation technology: E-Flo® DCi™ 4-Ball Pumps with DCi Link™.

Compared to other electric paint circulation pumps, the E-Flo DCi dual control (DC) pump with intelligence (i) offers:

• more power and efficiency in a small footprint that takes up less space 
• more reliability and ease of use with less parts to maintain 
• more intelligence with less hardware to communicate important data

Dual control (DC) allows operation in flow mode for constant circulation, or pressure mode for dynamic speed adjustments. Such flexibility could help paint mix room operators keep the pressure rates needed to fill all 24 canisters in seconds.

The DCi Link control module could connect via ethernet to the plant’s programmable logic controller (PLC). Ethernet access to web-based setup and programming would provide real-time access to the data needed to identify issues, such as under/over pressure or flow events, before they affect production.

Before bringing E-Flo DCi technology to the automotive assembly plant, Complete Automation set up each unit in its shop. Although technicians liked how easy it was to assemble each pump, they especially valued the ease of integration.

“The pump part was easy,” said Aaron Elliott, Graco field sales specialist. “The thing that impressed them at the very beginning was getting into the web interface for the DCi Link and being able to establish the registers needed to communicate with the factory PLC.”

Web-based setup and assembly done in advance, Complete Automation installed 15 E-Flo DCi pumps in the factory. As the integrators finetuned the automated setup, paint mix room operators easily jumped in.

“Having the pumps run in local mode was a great feature,” said the paint process engineer. “It allowed the operators to run the pumps to flush the system before they were fully integrated into the PLC controls.”

They quickly adjust to pressure mode when it’s time to replenish waterborne paint. All 24 canisters refill in seconds - without pressure drops and shutdowns due to low pressure faults.

The ability to access real-time data via DCi Link has proven essential to making sure all 15 E-Flo DCi pumps run efficiently at high cycle rates that keep up with production demands.

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