Pennwood

State-of-the-Art Vacuum Coating and UV Curing Process

• Objective
• Background
• How ETAC Helped
• Results/Benefits
• Testimonial

Objective
To implement a state-of-the-art vacuum coating and ultraviolet (UV) curing process to help Pennwood meet the growing demand for its products while reducing the overall environmental impact of its manufacturing operation.

Background
Pennwood is a small business in East Berlin, Pa. that specializes in strip flooring, moldings and finish trim with a special emphasis on hardwood. Started in 1942, Pennwood has gained national recognition for producing the highest quality manufactured wood products in the industry and is currently leading an industry movement towards prefinished wood molding.

The previous finishing operation used at Pennwood involved manually handling individual pieces using stain, seal and a topcoat for the product. The waterborne seal and topcoats were applied using a standard aerosol application system. The finishing operation had extremely low transfer efficiency. Approximately 50% of the coating was lost due to overspray. In addition, two applications of the clear topcoat were typically required to meet product quality standards. The finishing operation was a bottleneck in the overall productivity of the operation and added substantially to the overall cost of manufacturing. The water-based finishing system was labor-intensive, extremely slow and not environmentally friendly.

How ETAC Helped
ETAC was introduced to Pennwood at the DEP-sponsored regional workshop on new technologies developed by ETAC for the wood products industry. ETAC staff visited the plant and evaluated Pennwood's process and the challenges that its employees faced. After conducting an assessment of available and viable technologies, ETAC recommended a more efficient finishing operation and played a key role in establishing a technology transfer link to Pennwood's employees.

Based on ETAC's guidance and recommendations, Pennwood implemented a state-of-the-art vacuum coating and ultraviolet (UV) curing process. The new process has allowed them to manufacture high-quality, finished wood products with increased throughput, reduced manufacturing costs and reduced environmental impact.

Results/Benefits
By applying the new vacuum coating and UV curing process, Pennwood was able to:

• Increase throughput by installing a continuous coating operation with minimal handling of the product.
• Decrease the curing times for the process from hours to seconds by using ultraviolet energy, which has the unique advantage of cross-linking a photosensitized polymer extremely rapidly.
• Lower operating and labor costs by reducing the coating and drying of individual pieces.
• Improve transfer efficiencies in the vacuum coating system from less than 50% to over 95%, and as a result, reduce the overall cost of coating material per square foot of the product.
• Reduce the emissions of the coalescing aids, thus reducing the overall environmental impact of the process.

Testimonial

"ETAC offered our company (Pennwood) good advice and support throughout the process of evaluation and installation. We saved on production costs while using substances and materials that meet all environmental guidelines. Now, ETAC is in the process of conducting an energy survey-a great service because as a small company we cannot afford a specialty engineer. ETAC came in and conducted a technological survey and made recommendations that we will implement and follow. We are wholeheartedly pleased with the services we received from ETAC and plan to use them again." - Skip Coxon, President

For more information on the vacuum coating UV curing system used at Pennwood, contact us.

Note: ETAC has received approval from the company above to disclose its name and specific information about its work with ETAC.