International Extrusions, Inc. (INTEX) plans to install a new state-of-the-art powder coating line at its extrusion facility in Garden City, Michigan. This installation will enable the company to expand its production of high quality powder coated profiles for the architectural and other industries.
Since 1937, INTEX has built a strong reputation in the field of aluminum and has become a premier extrusion company in the Midwest. The company’s operations include aluminum extrusion, CNC fabrication, and custom powder coating solutions.
The new powder coating line installed at INTEX will be a Trevisan CUBE™ Plus — the first of its kind to be installed in the U.S. — supplied by SAT Srl, a subsidiary of Gema. First introduced seven years ago, the CUBE is a highly compact vertical powder coating line, which SAT developed based on experience garnered from over 30 years and 350 vertical coating line installations worldwide.
The first CUBE ever built had system dimensions that were equally 12 m in length, width, and height — hence the name. The design combines all processing steps (pretreatment, dying, powder application, and curing) into a small, integrated footprint. The consolidation allows coaters to install a complete powder coating operation that provides multiple output capacities within a relatively small area. The line is fully capable of meeting stringent requirements from organizations such as Qualicoat, American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA), and GSB International specifications.
The CUBE line designed for INTEX will have the capacity to coat over 650 aluminum profiles/hr while utilizing only one, patented V-shaped application booth. Powder will automatically coat both sides of each profile using 16 automatic Gema OptiGun GA03-P guns utilizing Smart in-line dense phase powder delivery. This process will be controlled using the Gema OptiCenter OC07 powder management control system. The CUBE technology combined with Gema controls will enable the line to deliver a high first pass transfer efficiency, ensuring lower powder consumption, excellent material utilization, and a better final product quality. It also provides a quick color change time of around 5 minutes.
In addition, INTEX will install the SAT Vision System, which is a camera-managed technology that is capable of recognizing and matching profile geometries that are loaded on the line in order to automatically trigger best practice recipe settings for the powder coating process.
The new powder coating line is expectecd to be in full production in the second half of 2021.