Dürr builds the largest paint shop ever in India for Ford’s Sanand plant

September 20, 2012: German mechanical and plant engineering group Dürr is building the largest ever paint shop in India for Ford India’s new car plant facility in Sanand, Gujarat. The paint shop – with proven Dürr technology – will start operations in 2014.

Along with the application, plant and automation technology, the scope of delivery also includes the conveyor technology and exhaust air purification systems. The well-proven RoDip M rotational dip coating system (pictured) is used in the pretreatment and electro dipping. The rotational movement of the car body in the RoDip tank guarantees uniform cleaning and coating. RoDip technology thus provides the best possible corrosion protection and also a space and material saving plant layout, since inclined sections at the entrance and exit of the dip tank are not needed.

The Ecopure TAR exhaust air purification system is used with the straight-through ovens for cathodic dip-coating and topcoat. This purifies the process exhaust air through incineration. The residual heat from the purified exhaust air is fed back into the production process by downstream heat recovery systems. This allows valuable resources to be conserved.

The application of exterior base coat and clear coat takes place fully automatically with 32 Ecopaint Robot RP L033 painting robots in two painting lines. All robots are equipped with the proven EcoBell2 high-speed rotating atomizer. The cleaning system Ecopaint Clean provides body cleaning prior to painting. Furthermore, eight Ecopaint RS 16 robots are used for the application of underbody protection and rocker panels.

Control and visualization of production is provided by Dürr's EcoEMOS process control system. Production costs can be effectively reduced and production quality can be significantly improved through easy access to process data. The conveyor system is not limited to the usual skid conveyors, but also includes a paint selection buffer and painted body storage for car bodies.

Dürr says the combination of its proven and innovative technologies makes the new paint shop in Sanand a benchmark for the Indian market. The plant will not only make a more environmentally friendly production reducing Volatile Organic Compounds, CO2 emissions and waste with reduced material and energy inputs possible, but will also provide lower costs per unit and impressive paint quality.

Ford will initially produce more than 240,000 passenger cars per year at the Sanand plant once it’s operational in 2014. The plant was ordered at the end of 2011.