HISTORY
Rimply Manufacturing — part of Magna’s Decoma Exterior Systems Group — is located in Newmarket, Ontario. The company paints automotive fascia and body side panels for Chrysler and GM plants located in the US, Canada and Mexico. They are one of North America’s highest production plastics painting operations.

Process
The paint finishing operation consists of two lines, one for primer applications and the second for basecoat and clearcoat processes.

Paint application consists of nine spray booths: three on the primer line and six on the basecoat/clearcoat line. On the primer line, the first spray booth contains three reciprocators (one on each side and one overhead). The reciprocator zone is followed by two robotic spray zones each containing four robots. On the base/clearcoat line, the reciprocator spray zone is followed by two robotic spray zones, another reciprocator zone, and two final robotic spray zones.

The plant’s main and satellite paint circulation areas are equipped to handle 12 primer colors, 82 basecoat colors and six clearcoat materials. This capacity is needed to handle the finishing requirements of each of the auto makers and to allow for extreme flexibility in their production scheduling.

Application Description
Rimply paints RIM (reaction injection molded) and TPO (thermoplastic olefin) fascia and body side panels. All RIM parts pass through primer, basecoat and clearcoat finishing processes. Some TPO parts go directly to the base/clearcoat line, while other TPO parts that require a low gloss accent color pass through both lines. TPO parts also receive an adhesion promoter coating in the base/clearcoat operation to improve adhesion between the substrate and the other coats.

Problem
Rimply recently decided to replace their aging hydraulic robots with new electric robots. As part of this upgrade, Rimply chose to evaluate robotic spray guns from a variety of manufacturers in order to select the best spray gun for their RIM and TPO application requirements.

Painting plastic substrates, like RIM and TPO fascia, require different processes. RIM, popular among automotive manufacturers because of its structural strength, has better handling characteristics but is prone to substrate problems during the painting and curing operation. TPO, which is environmentally friendlier because it can be recycled, is more process friendly but is more susceptible to marring, scratching and other handling damage.

Rimply needed spray guns that could handle the process requirements of both types of fascia substrates. The guns also had to achieve the exacting atomization performance of automotive “class A” finish specifications with a variety of coatings from different paint manufacturers.

The coating materials used are known in the industry as elastomeric urethanes. These materials have been developed and manufactured to strict automotive standards in order to achieve a high quality appearance, maximum durability and flexibility.

Graco Solution
At the conclusion of their competitive spray gun evaluation, Rimply chose Graco spray guns for all of the nine reciprocators and the 24 robots used in their painting operation. The reciprocators are equipped with PRO™ 5500 guns. Graco PRO 4600 guns were used on the original robots because it was easy to integrate them with the existing robotic spray controls. These guns are now being converted to PRO 5500 guns for use on the new FANUC P200 robots.

The Rimply Paint Process Group, headed by John Fairbrother and Shane Kavanaugh, conducted the exhaustive spray gun evaluation and chose Graco’s automatic electrostatic Pro spray guns because of their simplicity, reliability, and excellent spray atomization. Rimply also valued improvements Graco made to the electrodes, fluid nozzles, air caps, and shroud seal gaskets on the electrostatic guns. These improvements differentiated the Graco guns from the competition.

Another reason Rimply selected Graco PRO spray guns was due to the longstanding relationship and partnership maintained between Rimply and Graco for over 14 years. This relationship has been built on a mutual drive for improved performance and efficiency of Rimply’s spray operations.

The Magna/Rimply organization values continuous improvements, and Graco continues to provide Rimply the necessary technical support to achieve these product and process improvements through our distributor network.

Benefits
The installation of the new PRO guns has helped Rimply achieve the high quality finish that their customers require and the high yield rates that are necessary in order to operate profitably. They were also impressed with the ease of installation and startup of the new guns into their paint finishing operation.

Finally, Rimply is very satisfied with the low level of maintenance and service that the Pro spray guns require while operating in a tough, two shifts per day, six days per week production schedule. •