Author: adm1n_alit_1

ALIT’s solutions to strip aluminium parts presented in the special issue dedicated to the Aluminium 2018 trade fair of the magazine A&L.

On occasion of the Aluminium 2018 trade fair, which takes place every two years in Düsseldorf, ALIT showcased its paint stripping technologies for aluminium in the special issue dedicated to the fair of the A&L magazine. 

In particular, Fastrip ISP is an inline stripping plant with an innovative concept, which features a horizontal tank above which a rail runs for the in-line handling of hooks and frames intended for electrostatic coating operations. These are immersed and made pass through the stripping bath for a variable time of approximately 2 minutes. After leaving the chemical bath while still hanging onto the chain, they are completely clean and ready to be used in a new coating cycle.

It is a modular concept, which offers a high degree of personalization and can be integrated into the already existing production lines. 

Click here to read the article published on the October 2018 issue of A&L.

Cyprus-based aluminium manufacturer Muskita has installed a Fastrip ISP machine to treat its profile hanging hooks.

Muskita, manufacturer of aluminium profiles and accessories, has invested in an accessory phase of the coating process, greatly affecting productivity, energy efficiency, and operational safety: it has installed a paint stripping system to treat its profile hanging hooks, choosing the technological evolution of the Fastrip ISP machine produced by ALIT Technologies.

The system will help increase the speed of its coating line and it will enable the company to significantly reduce energy consumption and process costs. This is crucial for a company like Muskita, bearing much higher costs for energy supply than in the rest of Europe.

The Fastrip ISP system installed at Muskita’s premises is a 6-metre long chemical stripping tank, with a capacity of 2 tonnes of product and with a hook immersion depth of 30 cm. It is the first tank of this type to have a wall heating system with diathermic oil.

The tank can be completed with a water rinse module to remove the residual paint stripping oil and with an infrared lamp module for drying. The active paint stripping solution should never be changed, because the system is designed to be in balance: two products are used, one for the tank and one for feeding. 

Management is simple: the sludge is filtered by a filter press that produces a dry residue to be disposed of.

Read below the full article published on the international surface treatment magazine ipcm® International Paint&Coating Magazine, issue n. 53 (September/October 2018):

At the leading trade fair for coating technology PaintExpo 2018, ALIT presented Fastrip, a new range of innovative paint stripping machines.

ALIT has developed Fastrip, a range of innovative paint stripping systems suitable for the different needs of each company.

The Fastrip system range, which was presented for the first time at PaintExpo 2018, includes in-line paint stripping systems, immersion paint removal tanks, and spray systems, with different sizes and equally different investment costs.

The Fastrip T5 system

This off-line stripping system for hooks, frames, and parts to be restored features a medium-sized tank with a capacity of about 600 litres of chemical product. The process enables to remove the paint on hooks and components without attacking the base metal.

The Fastrip T5 system is available in three versions combining a chemical and a mechanical action:

• T5-U with ultrasound technology;
• T5-A with an air agitation system;
• T5-M with a mixer.

The Fastrip S system

In order to meet the needs of the numerous companies that clean and coat their machined components in-house, ALIT has developed Fastrip S, a vertical spray stripping system that allows to create a paint removal station with a small footprint, adjacent to the industrial cleaning plants.

Fastrip S consists of a paint stripping station and a rinsing tank.

Read below the full article published on the international surface treatment magazine ipcm® International Paint&Coating Magazine, issue n. 51 (May/June 2018):

With Fastrip and Fastrip MT, ALIT brings innovation in inline paint stripping of hooks and the recovery of aluminium profiles.

The Fastrip system

A hook in a modern painting plant, after several passes in the paint booth, can reach thicknesses of polymerised paint of 100 – 120 micron. These thicknesses prevent the necessary conductivity for electrostatic application, resulting in the negative effects of oversprayand an incorrect application of the powder on the product, which can amplify the “orange peel” effect of the film. 

The Fastrip system consists of a tank containing the stripping product positioned between the unloading and loading area of the plant. Just by extending a section of the pre-existing conveyor, the hook, in its travel from the unloading station towards the loading station and without being released from the chain, can be submerged into the tank (sized so that it maintains contact with the stripping solution) for approximately three minutes.

While the hook slides through the solution, the paint is stripped. At the end of the process, the conveyor repositions the hook in the correct loading area, where the profiles are ready to be painted. This stripping system avoids the continuous removal of the hooks and, as a result, loss of time by operators and allows for a reduction of powder coatings consumption. 

To allow the operators to have a very simple process to manage without downtime for cleaning the tank, the system is fitted with a system for the filtration of paint sludge deposited on the bottom.

The Fastrip MT system

Besides hook cleaning, recovering profiles with painting defects is very important. Normally, the profiles to be recovered were sent to outside companies specialised in paint stripping, but during the economic downturn, many companies tried to set up in-house processes to perform this step. Based on ALIT’s experience with stripping paint from hooks, the company developed stripping systems for other processes. This is where the idea came up to offer a solution for stripping paint from aluminium profiles, which ALIT named Fastrip MT (Multi Tank). 

The conceptconsists of designing a modular plant including different tanks served by an automated overhead crane.

“Stripping the aluminium profile in the most complete version of the systems requires a stripping tank, a heated tank with automatic cover, a second tank for rinsing, a third tank for alkaline pickling at a temperature of 30- 40 C°, a fourth 

tank for rinsing, a fifth for neutralization and a sixth for rinsing. Tanks are designed to allow the paint sludge to be conveyed to the filtration system fitted with a filter press and decanting vat. The filtered solution is then sent to the

stripping tanks. This is the ideal configuration of the Fastrip MT plant; however, options exist to reduce the number of steps by installing first a stripping tank followed by a rinsing tank. This enables companies to reduce their initial investment while maintaining the possibility to expand the stages of the process later, using the same platform and inserting the overhead crane and the filtration system to obtain savings in the stripping product and management costs”, explains ALIT’s CEO Loris Rossi to ipcm® International Paint&Coating Magazine. 

Fastrip MT has been designed to solve the problems of aesthetic finishing that arise during the final stage in the process of painting aluminium profiles; it avoids having to scrap material that has been painted badly, having to sand it down or wasting precious time by having outside companies perform chemical stripping. 

Read below the full article published on the international surface treatment magazine ipcm® International Paint&Coating Magazine, issue n. 47 (September/October 2017):

Aluminium profile manufacturer Sepal Spa has installed a Fastrip ISP inline system for the stripping of its hooks. 

Sepal’s plant in Lograto (Brescia, Italy) has been equipped with the Fastrip ISP hook stripper, which eliminates the need to remove the hooks from the conveyor and send them to a stripping contractor.

The system consists of a tank for the paint stripping product positioned between the unloading and loading stations. On their way from one station to another, the hooks are immersed in the stripping tank while still hanging on the chain.

After about 3 minutes, they are cleaned from any paint accumulation that can affect electrostatic generation during application.

Read below the full article published on the international surface treatment magazine ipcm® International Paint&Coating Magazine, issue n. 50 (March/April 2018):