FOR
SURFACE PROTECTION CUSTOMER MAGAZINE BY FSP 2/2016
HOT TOPIC:
durable finishes for first e-buses in Finland
➤ Raumojoki bridge − like brand new
➤ Heading for the world’s forefront of safety
➤ New surface treatment facility in Poland
contents
For Surface Protection is the stakeholder magazine of FSP Finnish Steel Painting Oy, published three times a year Content and visual design Viestintätoimisto VCA Oy Printing house Savion Kirjapaino Oy Cover photo Hannu Moilanen Headquarters Kalliosolantie 3 FI-01740 Vantaa Tel. +358 9 278 6270 www.fspcorp.com
FOR
SURFACE PROTECTION Founded in 1964, FSP Finnish Steel Painting Oy is one of the leading surface treatment providers in Northern Europe. It offers surface treatment services for machinery, equipment, ships, bridges, storage tanks, steel structures and off-shore equipment on a turnkey principle. The company follows strict quality, environmental, occupational safety and health standards. In 2015, FSP's turnover was about Meur 23. FSP employs over 200 surface treatment specialists in about 30 paint shops in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Poland.
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Durable finishes for first e-buses in Finland
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Raumojoki bridge − like brand new
8 New surface treatment facility in Poland
10 Heading for the world’s forefront of safety
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editorial
FSP has a good reputation and world-class expertise Our new customer survey tells us that FSP has a great reputation and highly satisfied customers. FSP's large resources, strong expertise, locality and flexibility are seen as strengths. There is a lot of so-called pent-up demand in the market, about to be released. In the next couple of years, we expect major investments and transport infrastructure projects to have a positive effect on the surface treatment industry. For instance, the Finnish government is budgeting 364 million Euros for traffic infrastructure maintenance (e.g. roads and railways) in 2017–2019. For instance many railway bridges require repairs, and FSP has extensive experience surface treating railway bridges. In addition, industrial investments are on the increase, which has already increased the demand for our surface treatment services. Investments result in economic growth, development, improved well-being and the ability to invest even more. Dear reader, we hope you enjoy our For Surface Protection magazine, in which we introduce the latest news and case reports about our company's activities. On pages 4−7 contract manufacturer Fortaco's Senior Project Manager Petri Ängeslevä tells us that he especially appreciates FSP's flexibility, since the delivery schedule must be accurate even when volumes increase. We are responsible for surface treating the first fast-charging electric buses in Finland at the Sastamala surface treatment facility. We also have a brand new case report from a bridge project in Tornio, where we surface treated the Raumojoki railway bridge. On pages 8−9 you can find out more about this railway bridge project, where the key elements were flexibility, good work quality and good communication. The article on pages 10−11 FSP's major investment project in Poland, which will soon be in full production use after the so-called ramp-up process and product audits are completed. In terms of occupational safety, we are close to be a world-class employer. In 2015, FSP has achieved a level III rating "Heading for the World´s Forefront of Safety" in the Zero Accidents Forum's occupational safety assessment. Find out more about our occupational safety achievements and the innovation team that works on new surface treatment methods on pages 12−13. Our goal is to be a local partner in the global markets. In addition to industrial surface treatment and engineering services, we also offer sub-assembly, packaging and logistics services in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Poland and Norway. Contact us – we're happy to tell you more about our smart, punctual and service-minded approach!
"Industrial investments have already increased the demand for our surface treatment services."
Best Regards,
Pentti Virtanen CEO FSP Finnish Steel Painting Oy
Follow up on our company news on Facebook, as well. Click the link on the fspcorp.com main page or directly on Facebook.
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case
Pho to : H ann u Moil anen
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According to Pekka Raiski, head of FSP's unit in Sastamala, FSP's priorities in surface treatment are adhesion, corrosion protection and a stylish finish.
Durable and stylish finishes for first e-buses in Finland Contract manufacturer Fortaco makes the first automatic fast-charging electric buses in Finland, developed by Linkker, at their Sastamala production facility. FSP is responsible for ensuring that the surfaces of the buses are both stylish and durable.
These electric buses are a new chapter in Finnish vehicle manufacturing history, because before this only individual electric bus prototypes had been there. What makes this historical is that trolley buses were first made in Finland decades ago. One cannot really compare them to modern electric
buses that rely on batteries, though. The first fast-charging electric buses made by Linkker are already in use in Espoo. Originally the manufacturing of electric buses at Fortaco began in 2015 when Helsinki Region Transport ordered 12 electric buses from Linkker. Linkker, based in Nastola, is responsible
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Durable coatings allow the electric buses to endure constant washing and difficult weather conditions.
for the sales, marketing and design work and Fortaco, located in Sastamala, is responsible for assembling the buses and procuring the materials. Fortaco's Senior Project Manager Petri Ängeslevä believes that the contract manufacturer has benefited from their partnership with FSP in Sastamala. "In Sastamala, Fortaco makes the buses' aluminium frames and does the assembly work. After this, FSP takes over and the buses are transported to the FSP Sastamala surface treatment facility using terminal tractors," Ängeslevä explains.
Kuva: Hannu Moilanen
Flexibility during production peaks
Fortaco's Senior Project Manager Petri Ängeslevä appreciates having a trustworthy surface treatment partner that Fortaco can rely on even during production peaks.
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According to Ängeslevä, up to 200 buses could be made in Sastamala per year as serial production. Fortaco also has facilities in Europe. By utilizing the company's subcontractor network it's possible to increase production even more. According to Ängeslevä, FSP is especially valuable as a surface treatment partner because the delivery schedules must be maintained even when production increases rapidly. This means that the surface treatment processes must run smoothly. After the bus is assembled the surface treatment must proceed quickly and according to schedule, because the delivery date for the bus has already been decided. "We have developed, and continue to develop, our processes in Sastamala in ways that allow the electric buses' lead times to remain short," Ängeslevä says.
The components of the electric buses come to Fortaco directly from subcontractors. During the assembly phase they construct a light-weight aluminium frame and chassis according to Linkker's specifications as well as an energy efficient power line that enables fast charging. "The electric buses must be ready by the delivery date, without compromising quality. That's why we appreciate a surface treatment partner that we can also rely on during production peaks." "The quality of FSP’s work has met all our expectations. We have plenty of potential to keep on improving the cost-effectiveness of our production process," Ängeslevä notes.
Close proximity supports partnership Ängeslevä also appreciates FSP's close proximity – the FSP surface treatment facility is located next to Fortaco's factory. The partners have already worked on other surface treatment projects together during the past several years. Head of the Sastamala unit, Pekka Raiski, explains that surface treatment work can be divided into different phases. "After the assembly phase, surface treatment covers degreasing, covering, roughening the surface, priming, undercoats and topcoats. Multi-coloured electric buses are not a problem. By increasing the temperature, drying times can be shortened," Raiski describes. "Achieving a durable and stylish finish is our ultimate goal, so we focus on adhesion, corrosion protection and style. In addition, we document our quality inspections. We measure the film thicknesses and gloss, and of course perform a visual inspection.” Durable coatings allow the electric buses to endure constant washing and difficult weather conditions. This benefits electric bus operators both in Finland and elsewhere. Electric buses made in Sastamala have been delivered to Helsinki, Turku and Denmark – among others. The market situation seems promising, since Helsinki Region Transport wants to have a large number of electric buses in their use. If the goals are met, in 2025 about a third of their 400 buses will be completely electric. Other large cities in Europe have similar plans.
Fast-charging electric bus • based on the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation electric vehicle programme and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd's eBus project • especially well-suited for local traffic • advantages: affordable power, low noise, no emissions • better air quality, improved customer experience, makes public transport more attractive • length 11.8 metres • weight approx. 9,500 kg • 36–40 seats • battery capacity 55 kWh
Linkker • offers life cycle cost optimized solutions for emission-free city bus traffic • the concept is based on a full aluminium lightweight frame and chassis and an energy-efficient power line that supports fast charging • offers considerable savings in terms of investment, use and maintenance costs • an optimized electric bus system is, depending on size, roughly 10–30% more cost efficient (life cycle) than a similar diesel-based system
Fortaco • mechanical engineering sub-contracting company • operates in the heavy machinery and equipment market • strong expertise in machine and equipment assembly, industrial machinery operator cabins, machining services and welded steel components • manufacturing operations in 10 locations in Eastern Europe and Finland
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case
Raumojoki bridge – like brand new During the summer and early autumn 2016 FSP surface treated the Raumojoki bridge in Tornio, Finland. The customer, VR Track, selected FSP for the project after a competitive tendering process.
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i
ni Fräk
: Juha
Photo
After sandblasting, three coats of paint were applied.
In addition to cost efficiency, FSP's experience and good references were appreciated. The Raumojoki railway bridge was built in 1934 and is located between Oulu and Tornio. Originally the bridge was used by both trains and cars, and it is a valuable historical traffic structure and landmark. Currently the bridge is only used for rail traffic: cars now use the new bridge built next to the old one in the early 1990s. The rivet bridge was starting to get into poor condition, so a repair project began in June 2016. “The work was divided into three sections and in August we started working on the last section. After sandblasting, three coats of paint were applied. VR Track provided the scaffolding and changed the railroad ties," describes FPS's supervisor for the project, Kari Holm. "It was a rainy summer, which slowed down our work. We were a little behind schedule, but working a few weekends helped us stay on track."
Thursday. An additional challenge was that while there were days without any rail traffic, on the busiest days the bridge was used by 3–4 freight trains. The tracks have to be vacated when trains are passing. As an exception to the original plans, there were 24 boxes with lids on the upper and lower parts of the bridge, which were also surface treated. The rivets on the bridge were painted by hand instead of using a paint sprayer. The railway bridge is 114 meters long. From FSP, four surface treatment professionals and the management were involved in the project. VR Track's project manager Mikko Ylikulju says that despite some minor scheduling challenges the project has progressed well and FSP has been able to catch up with the schedule. "Both parties have been flexible, the quality of the work has never been compromised and communication has been open," Ylikulju notes.
Flexibility and good communications A typical week at the Raumojoki bridge consisted of four 10-hour workdays from Monday to
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kansainvälistyminen internationalisation
New surface treatment facility in Poland FSP has started a new modern surface treatment facility in the city of Stargard Szczeci´n ski in Northern Poland. This means FSP is expanding its operations in Poland, since FSP already had a surface treatment facility near the new facility.
Production at the new facility will be in full swing after a so-called ramp-up process and product audits are completed. The facilities are located within the facilities of Hydroline Oy, which specializes in hydraulics solutions and cylinders. In addition to Hydroline, FSP's new facility will serve Cargotec and other customers in the region. "The painting of new products will be started one product at a time. At the same time, dedicated audits will be performed for each product when we begin painting them", describes FSP's COO of paint shops, Jarno Huttunen. According to Huttunen, work instructions and documentation have received a lot of attention at the new facility, because the customers' requirements are more demanding than normally. In addition to surface treatment workers and the supervisor, there is a quality engineer to monitor the process. The facility offers high capacity for customer demands, because the annual volume can reach up to 100,000 painted square metres.
Surface treatment services for other customers as well In the new factory, Hydroline mainly produces hydraulics cylinders. Hydroline's main office and factory are located in Siilinjärvi, Finland. FSP will also use its production facilities to serve other customers in addition to Hydroline.
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In total, this is a roughly 6 million Euro investment that is expected to increase the turnovers of both businesses and their number of international personnel. Hydroline's factory in Finland specializes in the small batch manufacturing of high-end products, while the factory in Poland will produce simpler products in greater numbers.
The second surface treatment facility in Poland The new facility is FSP's second surface treatment facility in Poland. FSP founded its first Polish surface treatment facility in the same city, in a Cargotec factory where FSP is responsible for carrying out surface treatment with its own equipment. Stargard Szczeci´nski is located roughly 40 kilometres to the northeast from Szcezin, in Western Pomerania, in Poland. There are roughly 70 000 residents in the city. It is the central city of the Stargard county. The investment decision was affected by the good demand situation in Poland, the growing Central European manufacturing market and the availability of qualified personnel. The slowing down of the "China phenomenon" is also a factor. Instead of businesses moving to China, there is now increasing movement back to Europe.
The new facility in Poland offers high capacity for demanding customers, because the annual volume can reach up to 100,000 painted square metres.
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occupational case safety
Heading for the World’s Forefront of Safety FSP is happy to receive development ideas regarding e.g. occupational safety or productivity through the TellUs application. Safety observations and other new ideas will continue to be entered into the TellUs application in the future.
The TellUs application is an excellent platform for reporting, processing, investigating and commenting on dangerous situations or accidents. All FSP employees can report safety observations through the application and create or share safety information throughout the organization. In 2015, FSP achieved a level III "Heading for the World’s Forefront of Safety" in the Zero Accidents Forum's occupational safety assessment. The rating is granted to workplaces that are members of the Zero Accident Forum and whose occupational safety targets are worldclass. FSP has been a member of the Zero Accidents Forum since 2013 as a sign of the management's and employees' desire to commit to work aimed at improving each person's own occupational safety.
Suspensions require improvement In the first half of 2016, FSP's top 3 in reporting dangerous situations have been the Raisio surface treatment facility, main office and the Iisalmi surface treatment facility. It is noteworthy that up to 45 % of the reported dangerous situations have been caused by carelessly suspended items or hanging hooks have failed or suspension tracks are in need of maintenance. The causes behind suspension hooks breaking have included underestimating the weight of the product. The product has turned out to be
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heavier than assumed. In the future, more attention must be paid to the weight markings on the hooks and products so that no one chooses an undersized hook, even by accident. Suspension track maintenance and potential repairs must be performed regularly regardless of who is responsible for it. Dangerous situations have also been caused by carelessly placed items or products on the painting rack or leaning against walls.
Avoid low-hanging hooks In addition there have been some cases with suspension tracks and hooks hanging too low. The risk is that someone could hit their head, or if e.g. a cap is limiting their line of sight the hook might poke them in the eye, which could cause serious damage. These situations have been immediately corrected as soon as they were noticed. One of the development projects this year is to develop and implement a maintenance programme for our facilities, machinery and equipment so we can monitor them better in the future.
Do not leave work unfinished The Lean philosophy recommends that every unfinished task in production facilities should be completed before moving on to the next thing or taking a break. This helps avoid having to do things twice by not spending time placing items in temporary locations and then in the final loca-
"Safety observations and other new ideas will continue to be entered into the TellUs application in the future. "
tion. It also helps in keeping the workplace tidy, efficient and safe for oneself and everyone else throughout the work shift. In its meetings, the FSP management discusses all reported and investigated safety observations and accidents and, if necessary, comments on them or requests more information. These measures will help us get better reports in the future, which allows the entire organization to learn and benefit from the situations that occurred.
FSP has achieved a leveI III "Heading for the World’s Forefront of Safety" in the Zero Accidents Forum's occupational safety assessment. FSP has been a member of the Zero Accidents Forum since 2013 as a sign of the management's and employees' desire to commit to work aimed at improving each person's own occupational safety.
The innovation team benefits everyone For three years, FSP has had an innovation team working on new ideas. Its purpose is to develop the company's and industry's operating methods and to look for potential new surface treatment methods and techniques. The team has developed from the traditional initiative committee, which it what it was originally called. The name was later changed to innovation team. The team was founded in 2014 and consists of CEO Pentti Virtanen, CTO Jukka Lähde, Director Procurement Anni Huttunen, Head of the Järvenpää Unit Mikko Kiiskinen and Director Sales and Marketing & Safety Manager Sanna Parkkonen. The team regularly handles e.g. all of the initiatives and safety observations recorded in the TellUs application. In addition, the group selects some of the entered development ideas and requests comments on them or asks that they be developed further with the personnel and customers. It also rewards the best ideas and ideas that show initiative, thus also acting as an initiative committee. The innovation team benefits not only the customers but also FSP's personnel. Concrete benefits include e.g. improved cost efficiency and productivity in accordance with the 5S and Lean philosophies.
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news
Surface treatment for lock gates Survey: Improving expertise The importance of surface treatment and engineering services will increase in the coming years. There is a so-called pent-up demand in the market, about to be released. For FSP, this means an opportunity to develop our expertise and expand our consulting services. This plan is based on FSP's national survey's core results. The survey was targeted at FSP's key customers that represent 80 % of FSP's turnover. 18 decision-makers answered the survey in March–April 2016. The survey was carried out using face-to-face interviews as the method. The goal was to better understand the way our customers buy services and to find out more about our relationship with them, their needs and the benefits we could offer. According to the respondents, competition is becoming tighter in the mechanical engineering industry, which shortens schedules and makes the price competition tougher. When choosing a surface treatment partner, clients value having a good personnel and equipment capacity, a good knowledge of the client's needs, good work quality, short lead times, transparency, solvency, smooth communication, functional processes and good documentation. It was good to hear that according to the results, FSP has a good reputation and highly satisfied customers. Of course we will still continue to invest in improving our services. FSP's large resources, strong expertise, locality and flexibility are seen as strengths. FSP would like to thank its partners for providing valuable feedback by participating in our survey. We will continue to improve our expertise according to our customers' wishes.
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In the next couple of years, Fortum is repairing the machinery in the Tainionkoski hydroelectricity plant. Before the actual repairs, FSP will fix up and surface treat the gates for inlet pipes 1 and 2. The customer for the project is OMP Piping Oy. The process of surface treating these massive gates and mechanisms started in the summer. The work involves lifting the gates to maintenance position, checking and cleaning the frame steel, sandblasting and surface treatment as well as the installation and testing of the gates. There are three gates per mechanism, six in total. One gate weighs about 22 tons and is 6 meters wide and 13 meters high. FSP will process two lock gates during 2016 and one in 2017. FSP's surface treatment expert Jarkko Peltonen is responsible for supervising the project. In addition to the supervisor, three surface treatment professionals are working on the project. The surface treatment is performed using high-pressure sprayers and difficult-to-reach areas are painted with paintbrushes if necessary. The goal of the repairs is to increase the capacity for producing renewable, emission free energy. The production capacity will increase by 14 megawatts. Founded in 1964, FSP has a lot of experience working on lock gates. FSP has completed numerous projects where gate structures needed to be protected against corrosion.
The Eno water tower got a new surface treatment FSP surface treated the inside surface of the Eno water tower during summer and early autumn 2016. The project, which involved painting nearly 1,000 square meters, was completed in September. Anne Savolainen, who ordered the project, has been satisfied with the results. The inner surface was starting to get into a bad shape, so repairs were deemed necessary. "We chose FSP due to their very competitive offer. In site meetings, the quality of the work has appeared to be very good. We also appreciate FSP's expertise," Savolainen explains. The project included washing and cleaning, sandblasting and painting. FSP also did some improvement work to the metal parts. In addition, the cathodic protection for the tank was updated. FSP had four surface treatment professionals and supervisor Karri Lempinen working on the project. The Eno water tower, which was built in 1978, enables the even pumping of water from the water treatment plants to the Eno village, in the Eastern Finland.
Photo: Shutterstock
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FSP Finnish Steel Painting Oy Kalliosolantie 3 FI-01740 Vantaa Tel. +358 9 278 6270 www.fspcorp.com
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Š VASTAVALO.FI
A longer life span Welcome Alihankinta 2016
Our industrial surface treatment, engineering and added-value services are well-acknowledged both in Finland and internationally. We offer surface treatment services for machines, equipment, ships, bridges, storage tanks, steel structures, oil and gas drilling rigs on a turnkey basis. We help you save time and focus on your own core competence and its development.
We use non-polluting working methods, we recycle and we practise safe storage techniques. We follow quality, environmental, industrial safety and health standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
FSP FINNISH STEEL PAINTING OY | KALLIOSOLANTIE 3 | FI-01740 VANTAA | +358 9 278 6270 | WWW.FSPCORP.COM