Precision spraying for panel laminator

Hoerbiger-Origa rodless pneumatic cylinder were the natural choice for reciprocators carrying adhesive spray guns for large sandwich panel production machines.

Being able to turn on a sixpence yet having the long term reliability of a Bentley made the Hoerbiger-Origa rodless pneumatic cylinder the natural choice for reciprocators carrying adhesive spray guns for large sandwich panel production machines built by Laminating Technology.

The panels, typically used for mobile buildings and caravans, are made up of inner and outer skins sandwiched with an insulating foam core of 50-100mm thickness.

These are made in a near-continuous process at the heart of which is a spray booth and integral conveyor.

An inner skin is put onto the conveyor and passed under the spray heads to coat it in adhesive; the core is laid on and another spray coating of adhesive is applied before the outer skin is added.

The laminate then advances to a press or rollers, where curing pressure is applied to ensure perfect bonding between the layers.

"For complete adhesion between the layers we need an absolutely even coating of adhesives," explains Lam-Tech partner Rob Bridgland.

"The coat weight required is around 100gsm within a very fine tolerance".

To achieve this it is necessary to have spray heads traversing across the width of the panel at an absolutely even speed, so that the adhesive coating is built up in stages.

It is essential that the spray heads maintain a steady speed throughout the entire spraying period, so they are only used during the constant speed part of the cylinders' stroke.

This means that the end of stroke deceleration and subsequent acceleration to full speed for the return traverse cannot form part of the spraying time, so Laminating Technology designs and builds its machines with the Hoerbiger-Origa cylinders overlapping both sides of the conveyor track.

All acceleration and deceleration is achieved within the overstroking parts of the cycle.

"The design and build quality of the Hoerbiger-Origa units gives them a far greater, more controllable and reliable acceleration up to steady speed than any thing else we have tried," acknowledges Bridgland.

"This is very important for our quality requirements, and it also brings a number of other advantages too." Most notable is the longevity of the product.

Laminating Technology still has many of its original machines operation in the field.

After say 10 years use, the spray head will typically have completed 20 million cycles and the Hoerbiger-Origa cylinders are proven to be able to deliver this sort of reliability.

"A traversing adhesive spray head naturally needs regular servicing".

"But with the Hoerbiger-Origa drives we know that the chances of an emergency call out between services are virtually nil, even after many years on this arduous task".

"And when we are on site the regular strip down is straightforward thanks to the well thought out design of the Origas".

The relatively short stroke length required for the turn round beyond the conveyor track helps keep the overall machines compact, an issue of importance to many end users to whom production floor space is at a premium".

""To ensure the even adhesive lay and long operating life we run the spray heads at up to 3m/sec".

"The rodless cylinders are capable of far greater speed than this, but it is good to have plenty of dynamic capability in hand when you are telling your end users that the machine is good for 10 years' hard use.".

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