"Form follows function" – this principle not only applies to innovative automobiles, but also the plants in which they are produced. The new cover for the trolley drive of the Dürr RoDip® rotational dip coating process provides impressive proof of this. For this reason it won the Red Dot in Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018.
For years, Dürr has been using the efficient RoDip® rotational dip process throughout the PT/EC (pretreatment and electrocoating) area. More than 10 million vehicles worldwide each year get their corrosion protection with the help of RoDip®. The rotational movement of the bodies does away with the need for entry and exit inclines at the tank, saving a considerable amount of space. The smaller tank capacity means that RoDip ® uses less energy, less water, and fewer chemicals than other technical solutions, and in this way reduces the costs per unit. The rotation of the entire body in the tank optimizes the immersion, flooding, and draining process and improves the quality of the corrosion protection.
RoDip® E works with electrically driven trolleys with integrated conveying and rotating drives, mounted on just one side of the tank for ease of access. For these trolleys, Dürr together with the Tübingen-based design agency defortec GmbH developed a cover that is not only more stable than its predecessor, but also more elegant. In accordance with the "design to cost" objective, the production of the new cover will not involve any additional costs. In addition, only one cover will be required, regardless of whether the drives in question run clockwise or counterclockwise. The selection of Dürr as a winner of the renowned Red Dot in Red Dot Award: Production Design 2018 proves that there is also room for imaginative and detailed design in industrial systems engineering: form and function go together perfectly here.