First for Chinese steel industry

Citation

(1999), "First for Chinese steel industry", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 46 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.1999.12846fab.012

First for Chinese steel industry

First for Chinese steel industry

Keywords: China, Steel, Coatings

The Chinese steel industry has taken delivery of a tailor-made Twin Vac tube coater equipped with an ACT Spectral Supa-Cure, as part of a £4 million package to modernise its production process.

The curing system has been designed jointly by ACT Spectral and Universal Finishing Systems. It has six double UV lamps and is said to be able to cure lacquer on tubes from 15mm up to 180mm in diameter (Plate 2).

Adrian Lockwood, commercial director of ACT Spectral, said: "The Supa-Cure system has been designed to suit individual requirements and has different numbers of UV lamps, lamp power factors and lamp lengths depending on the dimensions of products, production speeds and whether curing is needed on three or four sides".

Plate 2The Twin Vac tube coater, equipped with a Supa-Cure, designed jointly by ultra violet systems manufacturer, ACT Spectral and Universal Finishing Systems

Kevin Whittle, sales manager of Universal Finishing Systems, based in North Wales, said: "This is one of the largest systems we have built together with ACT Spectral and it will meet all the requested requirements. A Chinese delegation from Shanghai has recently paid us two visits and were very impressed with the system and its flexibility.

"They chose vacuum coating as their preferred method of rust prevention because there was no overspray or waste and the process is environmentally friendly. They felt it provided the ideal solution to ensure that steel tubes remain rust free.

"ACT Spectral's UV Supa-Cure and the Twin Vac are the perfect combination. The flexible cure profile of the Supa Cure offers low maintenance costs as well as long lamp life and the system provides a consistent coating handling six lines of up to 60 metres per minute."

Adrian added: "Concentrating on the customer's needs and supplying UV technology in the best way to suit their individual processes we believe is the recipe for success. UV offers huge advantages over conventional techniques, but these can only be exploited if the technology is correctly applied. At ACT Spectral we work with our customers to ensure that their individual needs are met".