Since 2010, FP Advanced Coatings Limited has aimed to improve its facilities and productivity. In the same year, we were the first major electrocoat company to embrace new pretreatment technologies that reduced the waste of energy and removed the need for harmful, heavy metals by using complex, chemical constituents.
Utilising such technologies has also enabled us to avoid pumping environmentally unfriendly sludge discharge into landfills.
Carrying out extensive research, we worked closely alongside our chemical supplier, Henkel to ensure the proposed nanotechnology pretreatment worked correctly with our chosen paint material from PPG Industries ltd. Allowing the chemical pretreatment of the steel to take place at ambient temperatures without the need for heavy, metal constituents, nanotechnology produces very little disposal sludge. The small amount of this by-product is biodegradable too.
For our company to begin using nanotechnology, we required the installation of sophisticated autodosing equipment linked into the automatic control systems of the plants. This equipment also supplies internet access and data storage for the chemists and suppliers to view.
A further enhancement to our technologies was linking the volume of products on our lines to the production processes. This was carried out by fitting sensors and encoders to track the work, only allowing the use of energy within the process areas as and when work is actually being processed.
FP Advanced Coatings Limited is committed to increasing productivity, and in May 2022, some 12 years after the programme of improvement started, it will be fitting robotic, powder-spraying technology to the powder coating plant.