The manufacturing process begins with receiving base materials delivered from suppliers, and after inspection, the surface of the base material is heat-treated in a batch fur-nace at several hundred degrees Celsius to burn and oxidize oil and other impurities adhering to the material, removing any surface contaminants. After that, the first step of the blasting process, which is the base treatment of TOSICAL-S, is performed to give the target surface matte texture with blasting equipment. “Depending on the shape and size of the base material, different blasting methods such as FINE BLAST and sand blasting are used. For a palm-sized materi-al, we use smaller equipment, which requires to operate the blast hose by hand, and the nozzle sprays fine particles onto the work surface to give it matte texture. Since the smaller equipment is operated manually, orders are processed one at a time.”Meanwhile, the new factory houses blasting equipment manufactured at the main factory for large base materials. “This equipment can handle rollers with a maximum surface length of 2000 m, a diameter of 600 mm, and a weight of 1 ton. For base materials larger than that, we are planning to process them in a dedicated blasting room at Fluorocoat,” explains Mr. Yagihara.The second step in the blasting process is to fix the matte textured shape on the surface using thermal spray-ing equipment. “Thermal spraying makes the surface rough and abrasive. The formation of micro-particles makes the surface profile more solid and improves the durability. The thermal spraying equipment has a dedicated wash booth for removing dust and fumes that come from the spraying process, preventing them from spreading throughout the factory.”After the blasting process, the non-adhesive resin is coated on the uneven surface, and the coating layer is heat-treated in a batch furnace to complete the TOSICAL-S product. “We have introduced new water-washable res-in coating equipment that can handle methods such as spraying and electrostatic coating. We use this equipment to apply coating in combination with the automatic trans-fer system that had been used at the Sekigahara Factory. When adding functions other than non-adhesiveness, such as abrasion resistance and solvent resistance, the optimum combination of surface profile and coating agent properties is employed. The sizes of the processing equipment are the same as that of the equipment at the main factory, and it is easy for the production staff to handle, we believe,” says Mr. Yagihara.Quality-oriented factory layoutIn terms of environmental responsiveness, solar panels will be installed on the roof of the new factory that provide a sufficient amount of backup power for minimum operation in the event of power outages or other emergencies. In addi-tion, the new large batch furnace has excellent heat efficien-cy, contributing to cost reductions in electricity. President Suwabe says, “TOSICAL-S processing requires consider-able power consumption, as much of the process is done at high temperatures of around 300-400°C. We are planning to install solar panels at the main factory in the future as well. We are promoting environmental mea-sures across the entire company.”Regarding the automation of the factory as a whole, he says, “Currently, we are mainly dealing with low-volume orders, so we are more concerned with maintaining consistent quality than au-tomating the production process. In or-der to control quality, blasting and resin coating equipment are placed apart in the factory using plastic-sheet shutters to keep those workspaces separate. If the two processes are carried out next Various types of smaller blasting equipment40Two-stage blasting process im-proves durabilityThe production area of the new factory is furnished with resin coating equipment, large and small batch furnaces, thermal spraying equipment, and various types of blasting equipment, enabling one-stop production of TOSICAL-S processing from blasting to drying of resin coating.
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