Where painting and coating processes are concerned, coating job-shops and companies with in-house painting operations around the world are facing the challenge of reducing costs, and at the same time enhancing  the quality, the productivity, the flexibility and the sustainability of the painting process. Appropriate solutions will be presented at PaintExpo, whose exhibitor list already includes roughly 450 companies. The exhibition program at the world’s leading trade fair for industrial coating technology ranges from pre-treatment right on up to quality control and packaging.

PaintExpo, is slated to take place at the Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre from April 17-20, 2018,

Whether industrial manufacturing or the production of consumer goods is involved, industrial coating technology plays a decisive role as a key technology. Depending on the product and the task at hand, various functional and decorative requirements need to be fulfilled. Regardless of whether metals, plastics, wood and wooden materials, glass or composites have to be coated, demands placed upon quality and individuality are increasing continuously around the globe. And cost pressure is increasing at the same time. The competitiveness of coating operations will depend to a great extent on whether or not they succeed in painting at even higher levels of quality, and at the same time more flexibly, more ecologically and more economically, as well is in a more resource-conserving manner. 

“Renowned companies who haven’t previously exhibited have also registered for the upcoming PaintExpo. And thus it’s already plainly apparent today that we’ll present the visitors with the world’s most up-to-date and comprehensive offerings for industrial coating technology, and thus for dealing with the challenges they’re faced with,” said Jürgen Haußmann, managing director of event promoters FairFair GmbH.

Whether liquid painting, powder coating or coil coating is required, the exhibition program of the world’s leading trade fair covers the entire process sequence for industrial coating technology. Amongst other things, developments for the treatment of multi-metal substrates will be presented in the field of pre-treatment in addition to wet chemical processes such as iron and zinc phosphatizing, as well as nano-ceramic systems. Due to their space-saving and resource-conserving modes of operation, as well as their ability to be integrated inline, dry pre-treatment processes like CO2 snow-jet and plasma cleaning are becoming more and more significant.

The trend towards ever smaller manufacturing lots, a growing multitude of colors and increasing individualization is being responded to by the manufacturers with system and optimization concepts which are consistently laid out for flexibility and efficiency, and assure ideal coating quality. Innovative masking solutions are also generating savings. Painting robots and automation solutions which have been specially developed for the coating industry, as well as spray guns and high-speed rotary atomizers laid out for maximized efficiency, permit targeted application and reduced scrap, and thus cost reductions too. A further approach to reducing material consumption and increasing flexibility involves intelligent paint logistics with flexible paint feeding systems. Where efficient overspray scrubbing is concerned, demand is continuously increasing for dry scrubbing systems. 

New, optimized drying technologies and conveyor systems are making a contribution to reduced energy consumption, and thus to lower unit costs as well. They’re laid out to minimize the loss of conditioned air and heat. In the field of liquid painting, the trend continues towards painting systems which permit a reduction in the number of required painting steps. Efforts to replace solvent-based paints with water-based systems also continue uninterruptedly. In the field of powder coating, low-temperature, thin-film and so-called “powder-in-powder” coating systems are promoting reduced consumption of energy and materials, as well as increased productivity.