Priming – UV Light Cured and Sanded

Brooke: George, I’m seeing a lot of white moldings here. I thought O’Hair only sold Shutter Panels that are unfinished.

George: That’s correct, but we do have a primed surface so that our customers have a minimal amount of surface preparation on their painted product. Actually the market is 90% painted.

Brooke: So the moldings are primed, and then you make the shutter panels out of them. How are the moldings primed?

George: We begin with a flat line that is 3 roller coaters in tandem.

Brooke: What are the bright lights all about?

George: Those are UltraViolet curing lamps. Our primer is a 100% solids UV curable primer. When it comes into contact with the UV radiation from the lamps, it cures to be 100% solid.

We have no solvents and no water in our primer.

Brooke: That must sound like strange stuff to some.

George: You definitely wouldn’t want to use UVs around your home. However, they have some great advantages. They provide an excellent moisture barrier and a very complete fill. There are also no volatile emissions involved so we’re environmentally friendly. They are great for straight-line production.

Brooke: George, I don’t see any sanding at the end. What about grain raise?

George:It’s minimal with UV, but we do have sanding in our vacuum line.

Brooke: Let’s go take a look at that.

George: The flat line coats the flat surfaces. The vacuum line coats the entire profile in a single file motion.

Brooke: And the sanding equipment?

George: We have profile sanders at the beginning and the end of the vacuum line. At the end we have a 10-station sander made up of felts and wheels. We finish with a 400 grit surface.

Brooke: Very smooth!

George: Smooth enough to make components, and that’s our next stop!