Perfection in series: High-tech coating of exterior mirrors

The technology-enthusiastic managing director quickly made a name for himself with his company. Motor Classic's services are also extremely popular with classic car enthusiasts outside Hungary. Over time, word of the high quality quickly spread and they received more and more orders for the surface finishing of various components, starting with mirror housings for automotive suppliers. Although classic cars are still the core business, Motor Classic now also sees itself as a highly professional partner for machine manufacturers, e.g. in the shipbuilding, medical technology, construction, aviation and agricultural sectors. All work steps relating to painting, CNC processing, chrome plating, anodizing and surface treatment are offered in-house. In the last 10 years in particular, the company has invested a large part of its turnover in state-of-the-art surface technologies.

Classic cars and many individual customer orders, such as aircraft parts or aluminum wheels, are liquid painted in 4 manual booths. In 2020, in order to be able to handle orders in large quantities, Motor Classic invested in the construction of a new hall with a fully automated liquid coating system and robot technology. The paint supply, application and mixing technology comes from WAGNER. For the managing director, who is known for his attention to detail and high technical standards, the highest possible quality was crucial when awarding the contract: "Everything this company produces must not be good - it must be perfect." Today, the ultra-modern automatic system is mainly used to coat exterior mirrors for automotive suppliers in series production.

The system works without a conveyor: After pre-treatment, two transfer robots move the coating frames loaded with components between the 4 coating booths and several drying and cooling units. A total of 4 painting robots are in use. In this way, several workpieces can be processed simultaneously in large quantities. There is high flexibility both in the type of material (metals, plastics) and in the workpiece geometry (small to medium-sized, flat to complex).

Application technology and paint supply from WAGNER

The GA 5000EA electrostatic gun is used to apply the primer to metal workpieces and achieves significant paint savings thanks to the wrap-around effect and high application efficiency. When applying primer and base coat (in a total of 8 colors) to the components, the GA 1900 airspray gun is used, which was specially developed for applications in continuous operation and produces an extremely fine atomization with a precise spray pattern. This results in particularly brilliant surfaces. Finally, the TOPFINISH RobotBell 1 high-speed rotation atomizer is used to apply the clear coat. "All application devices coat extremely efficiently and at the same time ensure perfect surface results," confirms Tibor Nagy, Production Manager at Motor Classic.

In the air-conditioned paint kitchen, high-performance ZIP 52 double diaphragm pumps from WAGNER ensure an efficient paint supply. Depending on customer requirements, water-based and solvent-based 1K and multi-component paints can be processed. Primer and clear coat are pumped from 200-liter drum lid lifting stations, the base coat from 30-liter drum lid lifters. A total of 3 primers, 7 base coats and 2 top coats are available at the same time and enable fast, smooth color changes. Here too, Motor Classic sets the highest quality standards: Continuous monitoring of parameters such as temperature, humidity, viscosity etc. ensures a stable operating environment at all times. The Intellimix 4 is used as mixing system, which is particularly suitable in combination with robot technology to efficiently process frequently changing quantities of paint application.

The manual restoration of classic cars remains at the heart of Motor Classic. At the same time, the investment in the ultra-modern automatic coating system represented a decisive step for the future of the company. Motor Classic was able to successfully establish series coating as a second business segment and raise efficiency and quality for its customers to a new level.