Category: Blog Articles

In 2024, internalizing paint stripping becomes viable. But, how to choose the right technology, and what are the benefits? This article explores these questions through a case study.

For many companies involved in painting operations, having an in-house chemical paint stripping system can be essential. It can be used to reclaim defective parts and to strip hooks and frames used for hanging the components. In both cases, the ability to perform these operations internally provides significant advantages. For instance, the in-house paint-stripping of parts with surface defects is quicker, allowing for prompt reprocessing and avoiding delivery delays. Similarly, the in-house chemical paint-stripping of hooks instead of relying on external contractors, brings about clear benefits. The turnover of hooks becomes more regular and consistent, resulting in a better paint quality, and avoids the typical damages associated with thermal or mechanical stripping.

ALIT TECHNOLOGIES SpA, a leading provider of chemical paint stripping products and systems for metals, has introduced the comprehensive FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK system to meet the growing demand for internal paint stripping. The system includes a chemical stripping tank from the T5 series and a set of modular accessories tailored to the customer’s specific needs. With FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK, parts to be stripped can be loaded into specially designed baskets, lifted with the overhead crane, and effortlessly transferred to the FASTRIP T5 stripping tank. The stripped material is then moved to the rinse tank, where, if necessary, a final spray rinse can be performed using the ALIT mobile pump.

At this point, the basket containing the stripped and rinsed material is transferred, again with the overhead crane, to the loading and unloading tank, where any final dripping is collected. For a complete and detailed description of the FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK system, please refer to issue 3 of the ALIT ACADEMY Magazine. In this article, we present a new case study featuring a major client which has been stripping in-house frames for approximately 9 months (since April 2023) using the FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK system in conjunction with ALIT Technologies’ chemical products. The company has transitioned from an outsourced pyrolytic stripping process to an internal chemical stripping process, with the external process now limited to rare oversized hooks.

We asked Claudio Puppi, ALIT’s sales technician, to introduce the company involved in our case study.

Figure 1: Sabiana SpA, manufacturer of environmental conditioning devices

“Sabiana SpA (fig. 1) (www.sabiana.it) is an Italian company that conceives, designs, and manufactures devices for environmental conditioning of workplaces and living spaces. It builds equipment and systems for heating and cooling various spaces such as factories, offices, hotels, hospitals, shopping centers, and houses, all based on the most natural element: water. Sabiana’s product range includes air heaters, radiant panels, fan coils, air handling units, recovery units, electronic filters, evaporative coolers, and radiant systems. Established in 1929, Sabiana has grown in terms of business, article quality, and global presence. In 2014, Sabiana became part of AFG (Arbonia-Forster Holding AG), now Arbonia AG, an international technological leader in construction materials. Sabiana SpA has an in-house powder coating facility for applying epoxy-polyester coatings. This coating line produces a significant quantity of coating hooks that need regular stripping. In the past, Sabiana Spa used to rely on an external stripping service for this activity, with hooks collected in special boxes and regularly sent to the external provider.

Claudio Puppi continues saying that ALIT was contacted by the client which was interested in an alternative to pyrolysis. Tests on Sabiana Spa’s hooks were conducted in ALIT’s laboratories, revealing that stripping them with METALSTRIP 2011 at 80°C was feasible. Consequently, ALIT proposed the initial design of the FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK stripping system. This technical proposal was later refined to fit the client’s space, the geometries of the overhead crane, basket, and lifting system, with valuable input from Engineer Vincenzo Denti, Sabiana’s director, who prepared the work area. In April 2023, the FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK system was installed, and the client began internally performing regular chemical stripping of hooks. The management of this process was entrusted to Dr. Marco Colombo, a chemist at Sabiana SpA.

We asked Claudio Puppi for details on the process, and he specified that Sabiana SpA strips about 3 baskets of hooks per week, with variable cycle times ranging from a minimum of about 2 hours to a maximum of about 7 hours for hooks with very thick paint layers (fig. 2). The product used is METALSTRIP 2011 by ALIT TECHNOLOGIES Spa, maintained at a temperature of 80°C.

Figure 2: Sabiana hooks painted with very thick paint layers

After the stripping tank, the basket is transferred from the overhead crane to the rinse tank, where first immersion and then spray rinsing are performed using the ALIT mobile pump or a small pressure washer connected to the same rinse tank (fig. 3).

Figure 3: Spray rinsing of stripped hooks in the client’s facility

This minimizes water consumption, estimated at about 3000 litres per year. Despite stripping about 5000 kg of hooks annually, the consumption of stripping agent is low, approximately 1500 kg per year.” Claudio Puppi continues stating that these numbers have fully satisfied the client, who can now internally carry out stripping operations without:

• Managing the logistics of shipping and receiving hooks to the external stripping service, as was done previously.

• Worrying about the risk of thermal embrittlement of hooks, which was inherent in the previous pyrolytic process.

Following the introduction of FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK, the client has experienced the following benefits:

• Improved stripping quality.

• Fewer coating defects on final products.

• Hooks no longer damaged by the thermal stress generated by the pyrolytic process.

• Certification of hooks and their load-bearing capacity no longer deteriorates, as it did with the previous pyrolytic technology.

• Overall savings in the stripping process in terms of time and money.

Claudio Puppi emphasizes that this case study is another confirmation of the effectiveness of the FASTRIP T5 MULTITANK system and ALIT’s approach to the customer. When faced with an initial technical request, we conduct laboratory tests and work together with the client to design the best customized system solution (fig. 4). Precise, fast assembly is then carried out as ergonomically as possible, concluding with regular supplies of ALIT chemical products and a consistent service for analysing the stripping baths. Following this approach precisely, ALIT has achieved customer satisfaction with Sabiana SpA and is now ready for the next case study.

Figure 5: Complete FASTRIP T5 MULTI TANK System installed at Sabiana SpA

The paint stripping of metal parts requires increasingly sustainable, safe, and efficient processes. ALIT Technologies is at the forefront of offering advanced answers and innovative solutions to meet future challenges.

The metal surface treatment market in general and, more specifically, the chemical paint stripping sector are undergoing a significant transformation, with an increasing demand for cheaper but at the same time more efficient products. Traditional requirements persist but new trends are developing, driven by the need to minimise the toxicity of chemicals and improve the safety of plants, equipping them with the most advanced and efficient technological devices and tools.

Trends in the field of chemical paint stripping

The chemical paint stripping market is increasingly moving away from products containing methylene chloride and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which are well known for their high toxicity. Wherever possible, customers tend to opt for water-based paint strippers, such as METALSTRIP 2011 from ALIT Technologies. If, on the other hand, the specific technical conditions, such as the type of metal substrate or paint, do not allow for the use of water-based paint stripping agents, the products must be formulated with a 100% organic base. In these cases, too, chemicals with a low environmental and toxicological impact are preferred, such as the METALSTRIP 136 series from ALIT Technologies. For example, METALSTRIP 1365, an organic-based paint stripper for medium-temperature applications, is particularly appreciated by customers looking for an excellent compromise between paint stripping performance, bath filterability, and low environmental and toxicological impact.

All the mentioned products have a working temperature between 45 and 75 °C. This implicitly indicates that the market is moving away from paint stripping processes conducted at room temperature with hazardous NMP or methylene chloride-based chemicals and towards medium-temperature processes using more sustainable chemistry. Indeed, a higher temperature improves process efficiency and allows utilising formulations with raw materials that are less hazardous to the operator and the environment.

Challenges and opportunities in the field of in-line chemical paint stripping

In-line paint stripping is a process carried out within a coating line to enable the hooks and frames required for hanging the components to be paint-stripped without removing them from the overhead conveyor. After workpiece unloading, the hooks and increasingly often the frames are led through a paint stripping tank while still hanging on the overhead conveyor, in order to go back to the line clean, free of any traces of paint, and ready for a new coating cycle.

With the increasingly widespread use of loading and unloading robots in coating lines, in-line paint stripping is also becoming more and more crucial to ensure the proper functioning of the robots themselves, as frames that have not been perfectly paint-stripped can compromise these machines’ performance degree, thus damaging the coated parts and even slowing down or stopping the workflow – all of which results in significant losses of turnover for the coating lines. Paint stripping quality thus becomes key to the efficiency of the entire process. Whereas in the past clean hooks were mainly needed to ensure good electrical contact between the parts to be painted and the line itself, now the optimisation of the unloading robots’ operation is an equally important factor. Clean frames guarantee all of this – and in-line chemical paint stripping plants are the means to meet such requirements.

ALIT Technologies’ key role in the paint stripping industry

ALIT Technologies operates at the very heart of these transformations, offering a comprehensive range of solutions to meet evolving market needs. Among its services, it conducts paint stripping laboratory tests, provides detailed chemical and engineering reports, and offers complete solutions in terms of both in-line paint stripping systems and related chemicals.

In summary, the paint stripping industry is moving in a more sustainable, safe, and efficient direction – and ALIT is at the forefront in offering advanced answers and innovative solutions to meet future challenges.

The seventh issue of ALIT Magazine is finally out!

Our aptitude for big projects has given life to the richest edition of our house-organ and we are happy to present it to you today.

As always, within this issue you will find several case studies that we think are useful for understanding the functioning and effectiveness of our products.

In particular, we wrote an article which shows an application case of CLARIS 9346MB, our additive which has allowed the Portuguese company Extrusal, specialized in the extrusion of aluminium profiles, to double the life of the alkaline solution used in the cleaning tank of the moulds.

Another case study tells the story of the Multi-Tank paint stripping process implemented in a company – Sabiana – producing air conditioning equipment which, thanks to the technology provided by ALIT Technologies, has obtained various advantages in terms of quality and costs.

Inside the Magazine there are two important news relating to the growth of the company: ALIT Technologies has become a joint-stock company and has launched a new brand – Mas-King – specialized in the manufacturing of masking equipment for the painting industry.

Furthermore, the company obtained, during 2023, two certifications, which we wanted to talk about in the Magazine. These testify to ALIT’s commitment to the continuous implementation of cutting-edge technologies.

As for automation, we would like to present you “packaGINA”, a completely automatic system for filling tanks with chemical products, positioning the lid, closing it and applying labels.

The seventh issue could not miss the section dedicated to new arrivals in the ALIT family and to those who are celebrating five years in the team.

What else? We look forward to meeting you during 2024 at two important international fairs: PaintExpo and Aluminium!

What is told in the magazine represents tangible proof of our continuous commitment to growth and improvement. Enthusiastic about a bright future and the new goals that await us, we thank you for the precious collaboration and for the trust you place in us. Continue to follow us for further news!

Read ALIT Academy Magazine n.7

After showing all our innovations in the past issue, we now show our readers how we are developing and expanding in a global and competitive market through successful partnerships and transfer of knowledge and technology to our customers.

First thing first we would like to thank our customers and distributors for the great collaboration and organization they have demonstrated in the preceding months. As is the case every year, our company also closed for two weeks during the summer break. During this period, our foreign customers and distributors showed great understanding and flexibility by arranging things in a way that did not disrupt the supply of our products and services.

In this issue of ALIT Magazine, we will introduce another foreign distributor who has been working with us for several years: ITS (IDEAL-Trade Service spol. s r.o.). ITS is a leading company in the chemical sector in Slovakia with extensive experience and an excellent reputation. We are confident that we will continue to work well together and achieve high growth objectives in this beautiful country.

The magazine’s goal is to inform the public about all the internal activities and dynamics of the company, to communicate ALIT’s great dynamism. In this issue, we will showcase the ongoing work within the company. We are investing in new machinery and technologies to increase production capacity and automation in the packaging of chemicals. These investments will enable us to improve efficiency and product quality and better meet all your needs, always focusing on safety and corporate well-being.

You will also find three case studies of clients who have achieved tangible results using our chemical products. These success stories demonstrate how our products can help companies improve their production processes and reduce costs.

We are pleased to announce that we have earned the ISO 9001 certification, a significant recognition of the quality of our products and services. Above all, the key to this achievement and corporate growth is our internal organization. At ALIT, we are constantly striving to improve, analyse errors to correct them, and do better. The ISO 9001 certification assesses our ability to meet customer requirements and continuously improve our performance.

We are proud to confirm our sponsorship of VeronaVolley, one of Italy’s most important volleyball teams. We believe that this sponsorship can help us introduce more foreign people to this wonderful sport and especially to this amazing team that had an excellent championship last year. If you happen to be in Italy, give us a call; it will be our pleasure to host you and watch a VeronaVolley volleyball match together.

We extend a warm welcome to Fabio and Andrea, our two new colleagues. Fabio will be responsible for electrical design and development, while Andrea will oversee marketing and corporate communication. We are delighted to have them on board and are confident they will contribute to the success of our company.

These are just a few of the important updates we have to share with you. We are committed to continuous growth and improvement, and we are confident that we will achieve great milestones in the coming months and years together.

Enjoy the reading: https://www.alit-tech.com/alit-academy-magazine-en/n-6-september-2023/