HOW METCASE’S NEW PAINT FACILITY IMPROVES FINISH QUALITY AND REDUCES LEAD TIMES

INVESTING IN QUALITY

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.” John Ruskin (1819-1900)

When an electronics designer specifies an enclosure, they’re making decisions that go far beyond appearance. The finish of an aluminium enclosure plays an important role in durability, corrosion resistance, brand presentation and ultimately the perceived quality of the finished equipment.

Whether the product is destined for a laboratory bench, a 19-inch rack or a factory floor, the enclosure needs to look right and perform consistently throughout its working life.

That’s why we’ve made a significant further investment in our in-house paint facility. Our new paint line represents much more than new equipment – it is a complete rethink of how we process painted products. The result is even higher quality finishes, increased manufacturing resilience and improved delivery performance for our customers.

For OEM electronics manufacturers working to demanding production schedules, these improvements provide tangible benefits from quotation through to final delivery.

TWICE THE BOOTHS – FASTER COMPLETION, MORE FLEXIBILITY

The headline change is straightforward: we’ve gone from one spray booth to two. That sounds like a simple capacity bump but the knock-on effect is bigger than the number suggests.

With two booths running, we can put two operators on the line spraying simultaneously instead of queuing work through a single station. On certain projects, particularly multi-colour runs, this has cut spraying time by around 50%. In practical terms, that’s less time for your order to wait its turn in the paint shop, and more predictable throughput when you’ve got a launch date to hit.

It also gives us greater flexibility. If a large batch comes in alongside several smaller bespoke-colour jobs, we’re not forced to choose between them. Both booths can be running different colours, different finishes or different substrates at the same time, without one job blocking the other.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS YOU CAN SEE

The first thing many customers notice about an enclosure is the finish.

Uniform colour, consistent texture and clean, blemish-free surfaces all contribute to the professional appearance of the finished product. Just as importantly, a high-quality finish reflects the manufacturing standards behind the enclosure itself.

Finishing quality has always been a matter of pride at METCASE, and since commissioning the new paint line, we’ve already noticed further measurable improvements in both finish quality and production efficiency.

Improved spray booth design provides operators with better working conditions and greater control during application, helping to achieve even more consistent coating thickness and surface appearance across production batches.

This consistency is particularly important for customers who order repeat production runs, where maintaining the same appearance from batch to batch is essential for product continuity.

ELIMINATING DOWNTIME

One of the biggest operational improvements has been replacing our previous automated conveyor system with a manual track. This might raise an eyebrow from anyone who assumes that ‘newer’ always means ‘more automated’.

While automated handling systems can offer advantages in some manufacturing environments, they also introduce additional mechanical complexity. Like any automated equipment, conveyor systems require maintenance and can occasionally become a source of production downtime.

Our new manual track has removed that risk entirely.

By eliminating auto-conveyor-related breakdowns, we have improved production reliability and reduced unplanned interruptions within the finishing process. This creates a more dependable manufacturing operation and helps us to maintain consistent production schedules – even during busy periods.

Sometimes the most effective engineering solution is also the simplest.

BUILT TO BE MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT – AND BUILT TO GROW

The new booths and ovens are considerably more energy efficient than the equipment they replaced – reducing our CO2 emissions per unit processed. For customers with their own environmental reporting obligations (particularly in sectors where supply chain sustainability is heavily scrutinised) that’s a data point worth having on file, and we’re happy to discuss it if it’s relevant to your own ESG reporting.

We’ve also built in room to expand the paint area further if demand requires it. Rather than sizing the investment purely for today’s volumes, we’ve left ourselves the physical space to increase capacity again down the line, without a disruptive rebuild.

THE PROCESS CHANGES MATTER AS MUCH AS THE HARDWARE

New equipment on its own doesn’t automatically mean better output. Alongside the physical upgrade, we’ve reviewed and adjusted the workflow around it, from how jobs are scheduled between the two booths to how work in progress moves through pretreatment and into the ovens.

The aim has been to make sure the processes match the capability of the new line, rather than running new kit through an old workflow and leaving efficiency gains on the table.

That work sits on top of the pretreatment process we already run every part through before it reaches the spray booth:

• Gardoclean® alkali cleaner and Gardobond® A 4913 lightweight amorphous iron phosphate pretreatment
• water rinse
• Gardolene® D 6870 chromium-free post pretreatment rinse
• drying oven (150°C, 15 minutes).

This strips oils and manufacturing residues from the aluminium and mild steel components and converts the surface to a non-metallic layer, improving the application, adhesion and surface finish of the paint. It’s not a visible part of the finish but it’s one reason that our painted parts retain their quality aesthetics.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR SPECIFICATION

For engineers specifying enclosures and front panels, the practical upshot is this: faster processing through the paint shop, superior equipment uptime, and a more consistent, higher-quality finish coming off the line.

None of this changes what you need to send us: your drawing, your quantities and your colour reference. This can be based on a broad spectrum of custom options – at no extra cost if the shade you want is one we carry in stock.

What’s changed is what happens once that job reaches our paint shop, and we think you’ll notice the difference in both the finish and the delivery date.

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