To support Enovate in the manufacturing of its e-cars at the company’s new plant in Changsha, China, Dürr built a scalable paint shop, which features EcoProFleet automated guided vehicles (AGV), RoDip® E and EcoDry X.
With the aim of promoting an intelligent and green mobility, e-car manufacturer Enovate has invested in a new plant, which is designed for an initial annual capacity of 60,000 units.
To be able to quickly expand its production in response to rising demand, Enovate opted to rely on Dürr’s expertise to build the new paint shop.
Flexible conveyor technology
Enovate’s new plant features EcoProFleet by Dürr, the first automated guided vehicles (AGV) specifically designed for paint shops.
AGVs are a flexible conveyor technology that is not bound to cycle times and can be easily extended as production figures grow.
Resistant to paint and solvent, equipped with an integrated laser scanner and a safety speed limit, Enovate’s four AGVs are used to convey bodies between the manual workstations and the intermediate storage area over an area of 60 by 36 meters.
AGVs do not require breaks for charging, therefore they are ready for use around the clock. Charging points are installed at those points in the plant layout where the AGVs are stopping anyway to hand over or pick-up bodies. In just 90 seconds they draw enough power to cover the next section. Dürr developed different adapter solutions for transporting the bodies to the AGVs and handing them off smoothly between the AGVs and other conveyor technology, for example from a roller track to an AGV. With the right adapter solution, the AGVs can be used both with skids, as at Enovate, and without skids.
RoDip E, the electrically driven dip coating
Enovate’s new paint shop is also the first in China to rely on the RoDip E rotational dip process in pre-treatment with a thin-film process and in cathodic electrocoating.
Unlike the RoDip M product variant RoDip E is electric. This means that each trolley can be individually programmed for a car body, allowing to define an optimized immersion curve in terms of turning and travel speeds for each body type, resulting in the best possible draining and minimal carryover. All RoDip variants have a comparatively short immersion tank with a small tank volume to keep consumption of water, chemicals, and energy as low as possible.
Environmentally friendly overspray separation
Dürr’s EcoDry X system is installed for the topcoat spray booth. It uses cardboard filter boxes as a separating agent for overspray, and is therefore more environmentally friendly than processes that use a mixture of water and chemicals. The process air is redirected to the air recirculation system, which reduces the total energy consumption of a paint shop by around 30% compared with a conventional wet scrubbing system that is operated without air recirculation. EcoDry
X also scores when it comes to handling since the disposable cardboard filters can be easily replaced, if necessary, even while production is still underway.