Palfinger, a global manufacturer of crane and lifting solutions, has modernised its paint shop in Córdoba, Argentina, together with Mankiewicz and WIWA. Facing the challenge of combining global process standards with local requirements, Palfinger was looking for a coating solution that would deliver high quality, process reliability, and sustainability while adapting to regional conditions. In this case study, discover how Mankiewicz supported Palfinger with an innovative single-coat coating system, helping to reduce energy consumption, minimise VOC emissions, improve process efficiency, and achieve reliable corrosion protection - creating a more sustainable and standardised coating process for global production.
Mankiewicz provides coating solutions for Palfinger
As a global company, Palfinger has an extensive international production network and strives to produce in a standardised and uniform manner while also taking local conditions into account. The main aim is to use standardised products and create the same conditions in the plants’ processes. At the same time, local adaptations are necessary in certain markets, for example due to specific material approvals. Many components are not available worldwide, which means that a single solution can often be difficult to achieve when considering local availability and technical service support.
Palfinger produces cranes and platforms for the South American market. The new paint shop was realised without a general contractor, as Angelika Zeilinger, senior surface technology at Palfinger, reports: “We are a small, effective team of three people here in Austria that takes care of implementing paint shops worldwide. We know our paint shops and requirements very well and therefore plan everything ourselves.”
For the realisation of the project in Argentina, Palfinger was supported by its partners Mankiewicz as paint manufacturer and WIWA Wilhelm Wagner GmbH as application technology manufacturer.
Long lasting partnership
WIWA has long been a system supplier for Palfinger in Europe and has now also supplied the application technology for Córdoba. The machine manufacturer was familiar with Mankiewicz from previous special coating projects. Its paint systems have been in use at various Palfinger sites around the world for many years.Mankiewicz was particularly interesting as a supplier for the new series coating in Argentina because they offer a single coat system. Palfinger relies in many countries on single-layer systems, as these are both energy-saving and robust and can be processed flexible.
Although an oven is still used, it only runs at 60 °C and the components have to remain there for an hour. In addition, the components only have to pass through the oven once thanks to the single-layer paint. This reflects the high energy consumption that is associated with the sometimes massive components in crane and lifting solution construction in order to ensure an economical process.
Palfinger favours a painting process that is as straightforward as possible. Chemical pre-treatment is also omitted in Argentina. „Poor chemical pre-treatment is worse than no chemical pre-treatment,“ explains Zeilinger. All components are blasted beforehand, using Pantatec‘s blasting agent cleaning additive, which serves to degrease and clean the High-Solid systems without the need for thinners ensure low VOC emissions substrate. This is based on the idea of minimising waste water output and thereby focusing on both economic and ecological aspects. Single-layer painting forms part of the product ran ge that a system supplier must provide for the production of Palfinger: Depending on the requirements profile, multi layer structures are also used - these include cathodic dip coa ting, powder and wet paint: „Cathodic dip coating simply offers too many advantages when it comes to infiltration,“ explains Zeilinger. But the customer still needs to be willing to pay for this.
High-quality single layer coatings
Nevertheless, the quality requirements outside Europe are just as high and strict standards apply even without dip coating. This applies to corrosion protection, for example, which is always checked on the company‘s own material in salt spray tests. This was also the reason for working with Mankiewicz in Argentina. In addition to saving paint material and energy, the paint manufacturer offers a system that also withstands high mechanical stress. This is based on many years of experience: We have been offering single-layer systems for construction machinery for over twenty years and are constantly improving them,“ explains Laura Kahn - Key Account Manager at Mankiewicz. Durability plays a major role in further development. „Our customers‘ specifications represent a minimum standard for us. In the further development of our products, we also focus on the aspects of efficiency, application simplicity and process reliability. Our customers value these performance indicators,“ explains Kahn, adding: „This means we are always on the safe side.“
In order for the paintwork to fulfil these promises, it must be applied properly. Modern equipment from WIWA is used here, which is designed according to the air-assisted airless principle. „We use the same components from WIWA worldwide,“ explains Angelika Zeilinger. This means that a colleague from Brazil could theoretically also call the Palfinger plants in Argentina for advice, as they have practically the same equipment there. WIWA‘s application technology copes well with the high solids paint systems, explains Zeilinger.
