Clearview National February 2015 - Issue 159 | Page 64

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A World of Colour
Auto Plas International Ltd was originally established in 1957
as a plastics component manufacturer, producing vacuum
formed parts for the film and automotive industry.
»»This included
product innovation and it is
here where Auto Plas guaranteed
its future, when the company’s
founder, Ken Harris, identified
an opportunity to diversify into
glazing cassettes for the door
industry, but not before finding
success with the invention of
the louvered auto sun visor. This
piece of auto styling, particularly
popular in the 80s, put Auto Plas
on the map and won Ken three
Queen’s awards for export, but
it would be the company’s work
with leading door manufacturers,

supplying colour matched
glazing cassette and ancillaries,
that shaped the company we see
today.
In 1998, Ken invested heavily
in tooling and injection moulding
machines to manufacture glazing
cassettes, with a paint finishing
line for colours and stains in oak,
cherry and rosewood. 10 years
ago this process was relatively
unheard of and as window
and door manufacturers began
pushing the boundaries of colour
with their products, so they
needed a range of complimentary

64 » F EB 2015 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

components. With an onsite
combined paint experience of
45 years, Auto Plas was able to
produce colour-matched samples
using a light spectrometer to
create stained finishes for glazing
cassettes and composite doors
alike.
In 2010, Reshad Shamtally was
brought onboard as a business
development consultant and
commissioned an ABB paint
robot as part of an automated
paint application line, with a
series of inline catalytic heaters
for accelerated cure time across a

range of paints. Reshad explains
in more detail, “The robot has
the capability of painting various
components, including doors and
cassettes, to customer colours in
volume. In fact, the line can paint
finish 3000 cassettes per single
shift, which includes changing
paint for different orders. It has
24 loading positions that carry 4
cassettes each. The process takes
just 15 minutes from loading,
painting, curing and unloading.
We also have the facility to paint
and cure a door in this way, on
both sides, without the need for
reloading, which takes just 5
minutes from start to finish.
“The robot line provides
repeatability. What’s more,
everything we produce is first
prepared, cleaned and inspected,
pre and post painting to assure
quality. The next step for us is
to take the automation a step
further with the introduction of
barcodes, which the robot will
read to identify the paint order
and then select the applicable
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