There are many different factors that can impact the quality of your coating or sealant application.

We focus on one of the most overlooked: the viscosity of your material.

Temperature plays an important role in your fluid’s viscosity. As temperature rises, viscosity drops. And as our sealant folks out there can tell you, as temperatures drop in the wintertime, viscosity gets higher, and the sealant gets thicker.

What we know is that small changes in temperature can create large variations in viscosity. The result of these variations is that the material does not perform as intended. And when the material you’re dispensing does not perform properly, it can become costly.

We provide a niche service that solves that problem: controlling your fluid dispensing process to keep viscosity within a specified range.

But it’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. To know whether we can help, it’s important to find the root cause of your problem first.

If you’re going to invest in capital equipment to solve something, it’s essential to understand both the issue you are addressing and the solution that effectively resolves it. This may sound simple enough, but it gets a little messy out here in the real world.

At the end of the day, you can only manage what you can measure.

The Type of Problem We Encounter

Let us say that we have a Tier 1 supplier painting parts for an automotive OEM.

The supplier is dispensing a topcoat in a robotic painting system with a paint that is 60% solids, 40% solvents. It is established that the material supplier provides a consistent batch. There is no supply issue.

The material temperature needs to remain between 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit; viscosity needs to stay between 180-200 cP (or 25-27 seconds on a Zahn #3).

The supplier is painting with robots but manually measuring and adjusting viscosity typically once per shift. It is established that everyone involved is “eyeing it.” There are limited controls as it relates to viscosity.

New tanks of material in the wintertime sit out overnight in temperatures less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. When it is brought in to start the process the next day, the material is cold and thicker than it needs to be (the viscosity increased due to colder temperature).

But all the operators see is that the material is too thick. So, they dump solvent in to thin it out.

Here is the issue: the paint formulation coming into the plant is still at its 60/40 ratio even though viscosity is higher, and the paint is thicker. It did not lose solvent as it was sealed up and stored overnight.

The only change was temperature.

But the operator just impacted the carefully formulated paint by adding more solvent to decrease viscosity.

Measure, Measure, Measure

This is an example, but situations like these are common. The questions then become: 1) What is the impact of these uncontrolled variables, and 2) What is the cost?

To answer these questions, you need to measure key parameters. And if you have not started measuring, now is a great time to begin.

It is crucial to determine if the fluctuations in temperature and viscosity are causing the issues you are experiencing. We recommend measuring both sets of data.

Using a tool such as a viscometer, you can start measuring the temperature and viscosity of the material in real time. Then, compare this data with measurements of variance in paint film thickness or other quality-related metrics.

Read more: Preparing to Automate Your Painting System? Data is the Name of the Game

The Benefit of Connecting the Dots

When you can connect fluctuating temperature and changing viscosity to the actual issues in your process that are costing you (i.e., defects, scrap, rework, production downtime), you move from the hypothetical to the concrete.

And you are left with key data displaying both cause and effect.

This is critical when you are a process engineer, or in another position, seeking funding for a capital project. By proposing a solution driven by data and attaching a realistic ROI, your likelihood for approval increases significantly.

And if during your analysis you find that uncontrolled temperature and viscosity is creating costly issues in your process, we have solutions.

Need help with using your data to make decisions for your process?

We can help! Get in Touch With Us!