Cut Energy Costs with Our High-Efficiency Curing Ovens.

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.

The next evolution of the automation coating production line is already here, and it’s centered on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine vision. While current automation excels at repeatability, the next generation excels at adaptability. At TIMS, we are pioneering the integration of these technologies to create truly "smart" systems. Imagine a line where high-resolution cameras inspect a part as it enters the booth, instantly identifying its unique geometry or orientation. An AI algorithm then generates an optimal, custom robotic spray path on the fly—no pre-programming required. Further down the line, another vision system inspects the cured finish, not just for pass/fail, but to analyze the quality data. The AI can then trace a subtle defect back to a minuscule pressure drop in a specific spray gun and flag it for maintenance before it becomes a real problem. This is the future TIMS is building: a self-optimizing automation coating production line that learns, adapts, and pushes quality and efficiency to levels previously unimaginable.

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.