SUCCESS STORIES
Dürr Creates Paint Shop for Electric Vehicles in China
T
he future belongs to electric cars,
and not installed in the body until the final
to apply the corrosion protection coating. The
since they allow an emission-
assembly line. The workflows in the painting
rotational movement of the bodies does away
free and sustainable mobility.
lines are adapting to these changes.
with the need for entry and exit inclines at the
The established car manufacturers are
Before the bodies are given their top
tank, saving a considerable amount of space.
increasingly being joined in the market
coat in the painting booth, they undergo
The smaller tank capacity means that RoDip
by new competitors, especially in China.
pretreatment (PT) and electro-coating (EC).
uses less energy, water, and chemicals, and
Dürr is currently building a fully automatic
The RoDip rotational dip process is used
in this way reduces the costs per unit. Then © Dürr
paint shop for a local OEM. The plant in Hefei is designed to
the seams on the underbody are sealed, a flat underbody
handle 100,000 units per year,
protection is applied, and
and will commence operation
sound deadening mats are
in June 2018. The integration
applied to the inside of the
of numerous digital@DÜRR
body. This is done using the
solutions turns the paint shop
new EcoGun2 3D applicator,
into a Smart Factory with
which is suitable for all sealing
extensive use of data.
materials and processes.
The new JAC (Anhui Jianghuai
The new channel layout in
Automobile) plant will produce
the applicator head results
battery-powered cars on
in a longer service life and a
behalf of a local electric car
lower pressure level during
manufacturer in the future. The
material feeding. The innovative
vehicles will be given a modern
applicators are mounted on a
two-tone color design in the
total of eight EcoRS 16 or EcoRS
fully automatic Dürr paint shop.
30L16 robots, and in this way
The plant in Hefei combines
apply the sealing material fully
advanced vehicle drives with
automatically to the bodies.
intelligent plant technology
The painting line itself consists
and modern painting concepts.
of a primer station as well as
The entire plant including data
one interior and two exterior
acquisition, data evaluation, and
painting stations for the top
plant monitoring is controlled
coat. Here the bodies are
by the Dürr software solution
removed in some cases and
iTAC.MES.Suite. The modular
returned to the top coat line for
MES system provides detailed
the two-tone roof painting. The
information on the production
final clear coat is also applied
workflows and the consumption
in fully automatic interior and
data at all times.
exterior painting stations. In
Electric vehicles are also increasingly featuring plastic and lightweight components, which are painted separately
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Figure 1: First-time use by a local Chinese manufacturer: EcoBell3 Ci atomizers for efficient paint application inside the body
N. 49 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 - international PAINT&COATING magazine
order to reduce the solvent emissions as much as possible, the exhaust air flow is purified, not only from the clear coat