For over a year the AkzoNobel research and development has been testing and field trialling the latest generation of UVA cured coatings with leading edge UVA LED curing technology supplier TeslaCure.
The results? Now you can spray your primer, cure it and then sand it within 30 seconds, when you use a combination of Sikkens Autosurfacer UV Primer with the TeslaCure UVA LED R100 cordless curing lamp.
The need for speed, efficiency and low energy consumption are all crucial aspects of any process driven bodyshop business focussing on Rapid Repairs.
To keep ahead of the competition and continually improve, you must always strive to reduce your process times, increase throughput and earn more profits without necessarily needing to hire more staff. This is exactly where AkzoNobel UVA cured coatings and TeslaCure are leading the way into the future of high speed rapid vehicle repairs.
Vehicle repairs at the speed of light
The days of using heat to cure refinish coatings may be coming to an end. Heat uses a lot of energy and energy is expensive. Most mobile infrared curing units use 6000-9000 watts of electrical energy, a spraybooth running on gas and electricity may also be a thing of the past in the not to distance future. TeslaCure LED UVA curing technology uses only light to cure UV primer in 30 seconds, the panel and UV primer is cured cold and the running cost per year is only $3.95, which is less than most cups of coffee.
The days of air dry products are also disappearing as these types of products create bottlenecks and that is the last thing you need in today’s high production bodyshops focussing on rapid repairs.
Conventional UV mercury lamps are slow, they require a warm up time of three minutes and you have to replace the globes every 500 hours, they run at high temperatures and use high wattage.
TeslaCure’s UVA LED R100 is a major breakthrough in UV curing technology, the lamp life is 20,000 hours so you will never need to replace a globe, they start curing instantly and run on only battery power. The unit is cordless and only needs charging at the end of each day.
Industry Leading Product
AkzoNobel enables the world’s fastest curing process with the most advanced, industry leading UVA cured primer - Sikkens Autosurfacer UV. It delivers an unmatched performance for any spot to medium-sized repair. Sikkens Autosurfacer UV is a one component, ready to use filler with an unlimited pot life. It has good build, excellent sanding properties and is not
sensitive for contour mapping. There is no wash primer required before application, drying times are extremely short and sanding is possible immediately after drying, saving you valuable time and energy while still achieving excellent results.
How to create profits by introducing true efficiency into your processes
The steps involved in repairing a vehicle should be broken down into each process even if you think that process is simple. Each process needs to be given an average process time.
The only hard one to estimate is a structural repair time, but every other process should have a set average process completion time.
The first step is to measure your average process times, then to improve on them; if you can save five minutes per process on every vehicle, then this would reduce your repair time by more than one hour per vehicle which would have a huge positive improvement on profits.
Managing your process time is achieved by:
Measuring, monitoring and improving process times
Teamwork under effective management, rather than individuals working on cars
Managing your bay space, as your bay space equals dollars. Move cars in and out as fast
Using only the best products and technology available to achieve the fastest possible times.
If you manage your process times this will allow you to control workflow at a very predictable rate with each vehicle process time being virtually the same (other than structural).
For more about how Sikkens and Tesla Cure call Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes on: (03) 9644 1711 or e-mail: ekaterina.gridina@akzonobel.com.