Powder Coating for Manufacturer of Sun Protection Systems

The name Varisol stands for high-quality awnings and sun protection systems for conservatories, balconies, terraces and windows which are made in Germany.

The company behind the brand is Rödelbronn, a medium-sized family business with around 110 employees and a production facility that covers an area of 10,000 square metres. Rödelbronn sells its products via specialist dealers in 18 countries all over the world.

Over recent years, customers’ requests for made-to-order products in personalised colours to match their glass roofs and the company’s desire to stand out from its competitors have led to very large numbers of awnings being made in special colours. In 2013, Rödelbronn decided that it needed to change its manufacturing process. “Originally we had five standard colours,” explains Karl Rödelbronn, the company’s managing director. “That was fine for our folding arm awnings, but it was not enough for our glass roof products.”

If a conservatory roof is designed in a special colour, the sun blinds must match the roof. As a result, the number of special colours has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. In the past, small parts such as fittings were coated manually in-house and the profiles were sent to a specialist coating company.

The wide range of parts and the special designs presented the factory management team with a growing number of challenges. Long delivery times, complex logistics, the use of a huge amount of packaging and a lack of flexibility meant that the company could no longer meet its customers’ requirements for more and more personalised products. A new manufacturing process was needed. At the same time, the company was planning to expand and enlarge its production plant. The obvious solution was to bring all the powder coating processes in-house, but the company had no experience of fully automatic powder coating

Rödelbronn opted for Nordson’s dense phase system, including a powder feed centre with rapid colour changes (Spectrum HD), a powder coating booth (ColorMax3) and automatic guns (Encore HD), plus a twin cyclone for powder recovery.

The decisive factors were the much faster colour change, the reproducibility of the process and the reliable powder recovery system. It is very important for Rödelbronn that its production processes make efficient use of resources.

Other considerations included the wide variety of materials used, which range from aluminium to plastic, and the complexity of the components. The coating process was demonstrated in a powder coating booth in Nordson’s lab which met all the technical requirements.

The decision to choose the system presented in the lab was an obvious one. “A powder coating shop with this level of technology would normally have been at the limits of our price range,” says plant manager Joachim Göbels. “We would have opted for a lower-level solution, but because of the very good quotation we received, we now have a high-end product for the price of a traditional booth.”

The dense phase system met all of Rödelbronn’s requirements. Following a slight delay in the construction of the new production building, the powder coating system was finally installed and came into operation in May 2015. Rödelbronn can now manufacture products to order.

Each awning is custom-made in terms of its dimensions, width, materials and frame colour. When products are being produced to order in a variety of different colours, making efficient use of the coating racks is essential. In order to allow for this and to avoid colour carry-over, the individual components are pre-sorted by colour and coated in batches.

Rödelbronn invested around 5 million euros in constructing its new building and installing the machinery. The company is very satisfied with the end result. “The major benefit is the quality. We can provide higher quality profiles, simply because they are handled less often.”

Another important change relates to flexibility. “Sometimes we find that a profile has been damaged before it is assembled. We are now in a position to coat it again within four to twelve hours.” In the past this might have delayed the delivery date by up to a week, because the parts were not coated in-house.

Goebels also has a positive view of the powder coating line in particular. “The decisive factors were the very fast colour changes, involving very little powder wastage, and the fact that we can recover the powder that we use.” Karl Rödelbronn believes that his family business is now in a strong position for the future. “It may be possible for us to take on coating jobs from outside.

We have already seen that the demand is there. But we need to take another step forward before we can do that. We have now reached the point where we can meet our own needs and are satisfied with the quality of our products.” The company is also considering the possibility of introducing two- or three-shift operation in future.