De-lacquering as a service

Development of the service of de-lacquering in industrial plants on the basis of pulsed high pressure water with a new, energy efficient high pressure pump. Further possible applications will be searched for and evaluated.

Short Description

Status

completed

Summary

De-lacquering is a need for all enterprises which paint or coat metal materials or plastics, in Austria, approximately 100 companies. At their sites, some 100.000 m² of surfaces have to be stripped of coatings.

Components of plants like hangers, or floor grids are covered by coating material overspray over time. They have to be de-lacquered periodically. There are different approaches to de-lacquering: chemical de-lacquering involving the use of solvents, thermal de-lacquering by basically burning off the paint film or mechanical de-lacquering by shotblasting or brushing. The most common approach in Austria is to truck the parts to Hungary or the Slovak Republic and have them stripped there.

The objective of the project “De-Lacquering as a Service” was to develop components of a plant working with pulsed high pressure water jet and construct a pilot installation, which is able to de-lacquer parts with high pressure pulsed water. Simultaneously, the whole service of de-lacquering at the face should be offered to the client including transport and change of the parts to be de-lacquered, quality management, accounting and the contract with the client.

The combination of pulsed high pressure water jet and self controlling, energy efficient and maintenance-free high pressure water pump (based on the Austrian registered trademark AT 0044890U1) has not yet implemented worldwide. The puls control of the high pressure water is interrupting the water stream up to 50 times per second and by that a superior cleaning effect can be done at relatively low pressures. The water cycle is completely closed in this system. The only waste is paint sludge. No aggressive chemicals or excess of thermal energy is used with this service.

The method used to develop the service as a whole is based in an approach of system analysis to form a client model and a process model.

Working of the water jet tool in combination with the high pressure pump is shown and analyzed by high speed camera.

Development, construction and implementation of the pilot installation have in the main been completed as planned. Because of the unsatisfying cleaning effect in the first run the testing period has lasted longer and become more expensive than planned in the beginning. There are still remarkable cleaning results at certain kinds of lacquer by using the automatic device. The results of cleaning with the handlance are not yet satisfying, caused by the inability to transfer the cutting of the jet of water from the device to the hand lance through the connecting hose. This could be visualized by using a high speed camera.

Project Partners

Project management

Mag. Peter Deixelberger
Zeltweg Managementberatung
E-Mail: peter@deixelberger.com

Project or cooperation partner

Contact Address

IPUS Industrie-, Produktions- und Umwelttechnisches Service GmbH
Dr. Josef Steiner
Werksgasse 281, 8786 Rottenmann
Tel.: +43 (3614) 31330
E-Mail: office@ipus.at
Web: www.ipus.at