The ROI of Automation is Measured in Quality and Speed.

Installing a new automation coating production line is a major project that requires careful facility planning. Use this expert checklist from TIMS to ensure you're prepared. 1) Space & Layout: Have you mapped the full footprint, including maintenance access and loading/unloading zones? 2) Utilities: Do you have sufficient electrical service, compressed air volume/purity, and natural gas pressure? 3) Foundation: Does the concrete floor meet the load requirements for heavy equipment like ovens and wash systems? 4) Ventilation: Have you planned for necessary air intake and exhaust ducting, especially for ovens and booths? 5) Drainage: Is there proper trenching and connection to an industrial water treatment system for the pretreatment stage? 6) Lighting: Is the area well-lit for quality control and maintenance? 7) Material Flow: How will raw parts be delivered to the line and finished parts taken away? 8) Safety: Have you allocated space for fire suppression systems, E-stops, and safety guarding? 9) Permits: Have you initiated the process for environmental and building permits? 10) Data Connectivity: Is there Ethernet connectivity planned for Industry 4.0 features? A TIMS project manager works through this checklist with you to ensure a smooth installation of your automation coating production line.

One of the most persistent myths I've encountered is that an automation coating production line only makes financial sense for companies producing hundreds of thousands of identical parts. This might have been true 20 years ago, but it's completely false today. Modern automation, especially the flexible systems designed by TIMS, excels in high-mix, low-volume environments. The key is the dramatic reduction in changeover time. With features like automated recipe recall, RFID part identification, and quick-change powder systems, a TIMS line can switch from coating small brackets of one color to large panels of another in minutes, not hours. For a job shop or custom manufacturer, this agility is revolutionary. It allows them to combine the quality and consistency of automation with the flexibility their business model demands. The truth is, the ROI for a modern automation coating production line is based on overall efficiency and quality uplift, not just raw volume.

If you are struggling with inconsistent coating thickness, you are fighting a battle against variables—operator fatigue, ambient temperature shifts, and inconsistent gun-to-part distance. In my experience, this is the single most common source of quality rejects and wasted material. The definitive solution is a well-designed automation coating production line from TIMS, which systematically eliminates these variables. Our systems use robotic applicators programmed with precise, repeatable motion paths, ensuring the spray gun maintains the exact optimal angle and distance for every surface of your part, every single time. This robotic precision is paired with a closed-loop flow control system that delivers the exact amount of coating material, automatically compensating for changes in viscosity. With a TIMS automation coating production line, you move from a process of reactive quality checks to one of proactive quality assurance, where a perfect, uniform mil thickness is not an aspiration but the engineered, guaranteed outcome of your system.

For years, the curing oven has been one of an automation coating production line's biggest energy consumers. Today, TIMS is changing the equation with our new Smart-Cure™ technology. This isn't just an oven; it's an intelligent thermal management system. Instead of maintaining a single, static temperature, Smart-Cure™ ovens feature multiple zones equipped with advanced infrared (IR) and convection heating. An optical scanner identifies the mass and geometry of each part entering the oven. The system's controller then creates a dynamic heating profile, applying intense IR energy to ramp the part to temperature quickly and then using convection to hold it there for a perfect cure. This eliminates wasted energy from heating empty space in the oven and prevents over- or under-curing. On a typical TIMS automation coating production line, the Smart-Cure™ oven can reduce gas consumption by up to 30%, delivering a significant operational cost saving and a superior, more consistent cure.