Flameless gas infrared paint drying equipment, heaters, ovens from Catalytic Industrial Systems

Catalytic Industrial Ovens - conveyor IR / infrared ovens as drying ovens equipment; convection oven technology

	Catalytic infrared heating saves up to 80% of the energy & time needed by convection ovens or electric infrared ovens.

Flameless Catalytic IR / Infrared Heated Oven Systems Provide Optimum Curing for Liquid and Powder Finishes on Metal, Plastic and Wood

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APPLICATIONS:
• Deere / Hitachi, Kernersville, NC
• Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corporation, Lincoln, NE
• Link-Belt Construction Equipment, Lexington, KY
• Streator Unlimited, Streator, IL
• Ameristar Fence Products, Tulsa, OK
• Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I)

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Case Study #5:
Ameristar Fence Chooses Catalytic
Industrial Ovens for a Cured Finish that
Outperforms the Product’s 20-year Warranty

Flameless gas infrared paint drying equipment, heaters, ovens from Catalytic Industrial Systems

Ameristar Fence Products (Tulsa, OK) is the world’s largest manufacturer
of ornamental fence products. It is also America’s only architectural metal
fence manufacturer that controls all of its manufacturing processes.

Ameristar was the first manufacturer to electrostatically coat fence
products with a polyester powder coating. The company has tested and
applied numerous other powders since it first began manufacturing in 1982.
Today, Ameristar operates what many experts regard as the most advanced
epoxy and polyester (double-coat/TGIC) coating line in the industry.

Realizing that the product finish is only as good as its cure, Ameristar uses
three ovens powered by Catalytic Industrial Systems (Independence, KS).
The cure has to be perfect: Ameristar warrants its residential fence
for 20 years.

Ameristar averages 200,000 pieces per day, coating and curing pickets,
posts and hardware with help from 97 workers, who also man the
packaging station. When the coating line starts, it runs until shut-down,
without breaks. Parts are powder coated and cured in an unusually
dense racking configuration engineered by Coating Line Process Control
Supervisor, Ron Chandler.

“When we run pickets,” he says, “we run 64 four-foot pickets in a
line space 4 ft. long and 6’ high. When we coat hardware, there are
135 pieces in a 4’ area.

“This is all about volume, and density,” suggests Chandler, who manages
two coating lines that each run 80 hours per week. Chandler has
overseen the company’s expansion from $2 million in annual sales,
to $175 million, projected for 2008.

Parts, which are galvanized, begin the finishing process in a 5-stage
washer and pretreatment system that uses Henkel chemistry.
Powder application (the company applies Rohm and Haas TGIC
polyester) is followed by an infrared pre-cure and 15-20 minutes
of primary oven dwell time.

The 75’ ovens each have 136 infrared heaters . They run at 13 ft.
per minute line speed, “which means,” says Chandler, “that when
pickets are run, for example, they come off the line at 200 to 250
pieces per minute.

“We have experimented over time with various powder chemistries,”
he adds, “and found that the one constant – the one thing that always
worked, was the cure we got from the Catalytic Industrial ovens.
They were readily adaptable to any powder chemistry we were using.”

“But when – once – we used another infrared supplier, the result was
burners that worked barely half as well and slowed my line speed.”
It was a costly experiment: “One third of the other vendor’s work did
not even function properly. They could not provide a sensible reason,
and then said the burners were not repairable. We asked Catalytic
Industrial Systems back in, and have not had any cure problems
since then.”

Ameristar recently introduced a new product – a high security fence
that withstands 2 tons of truck impact at 50 mph. “It stops at 3 feet,”
says Chandler, “and demolishes the truck.” Made of steel and cable,
it has 3-inch wide “uprights,” roll-formed in a proprietary shape for
maximum strength, with a sharp curved point.

“No one is getting through this product,” says Chandler, “and no one
with anything but an excellent system is getting near my coating lines.”

NEXT CASE STUDY>>

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Catalytic Industrial Systems
20th and Sycamore • Independence, KS 67301
E-mail: sales@catalyticirovens.com
(800) 835-0557

Catalytic Convection Ovens