FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY
electrostatic optimisation features, and in particular thanks to the
resistance of aluminium profiles is growing at such a rate that I predict
C-Expert booth, these two critical aspects are 100% under control. The
that, within five-years years, pre-anodising will be prevalent in the
new drying and curing ovens’ concept is also very satisfactory because
coating market,” says Philip Hilven. “Before we integrated the Lummen
it enables us to recover residual heat to pre-heat the powder and thus
line with the FOX system for in-line pre-anodising, our anodising plant
avoid using an IR oven, which, on the other hand, we are still using
was practically only devoted to this process. This saturated its capacity
on the Tisselt line. Revolving doors also contribute to greater energy
and caused us to lose up to five days on delivery times. Not to mention
efficiency and therefore cost savings.”
the fact that we had to turn down requests for anodised or electro-
As far as pre-treatment is concerned, the new Lummen coating line
coloured profiles, which have been increasing in the powder coating
features a traditional reverse cascade tunnel with a “French” cycle, i.e.
market lately.”
alkaline degreasing and acid etching. “Demand from the French market
“Why do I believe that pre-anodising will be strategic in ten years at
is growing, and therefore we have chosen to offer the alkaline+acid
the most? Firstly, because of the quality degree of primary aluminium,
pre-treatment cycle as a standard to meet the Qualimarine certification
which is not always constant enough to guarantee the outdoor
requirements,” indicates Hilven.
resistance level required by our customers. Secondly, because of
In-line pre-anodising: a trump card for meeting market challenges
the widespread use of recycled aluminium, which should certainly be safeguarded but which calls for greater care during extrusion. Unfortunately, unlike the quality of aluminium, the quality of extrusions
The second major intervention carried out by Alural in cooperation with
is something we cannot measure. This is why we guarantee a minimum
SAT earlier in 2021 was the addition of a FOX (Flash OXidation) system
standard of 2 g/m2 of etching with traditional pre-treatment, but we
to the existing vertical line at the Lummen factory, which was installed
prefer to focus on pre-anodising as a quality strategy. Now, thanks to
by SAT itself in 2015. “The demand from some markets for flash
our in-line pre-anodising system, we can offer this additional processing
anodising as an additional pre-treatment step to increase the outdoor
at a lower cost and within the cycle time of a normal painting process.”
