The Client
Sternberg Lighting has been creating lighting fixtures and ornamental poles since 1923. Today, their product has expanded to include custom projects and site amenities, such as clocks, street signs, mail boxes, benches and trash receptacles.
The Challenge
Previously a liquid operation, Sternberg made the transition to powder in 2005. As a custom shop, they will apply any color the customer wants. Making quick color change an important consideration. More importantly, the reliability and application efficiency of the powder guns was a primary concern.
The Solution
Finishing Department Supervisor, George Howe, has worked with numerous application equipment vendors over his career and concluded that Gema USA would make the best fit for Sternberg. “Some of the other equipment guys make a pretty good booth,” George admitted, “but Gema definitely makes the best guns! Sternberg installed a Diamond™ 10,000 cfm powder booth with automatic gun triggering. The booth was fitted with OptiGun™ automatic powder guns, OptiTronic™ control units, and OptiFlow™ high-performance powder pumps. EasySystem™ touch-up units were attached to the booth to accommodate areas where manual work is required.
The Savings
“The system has been awesome!” George remarked. “Our pump inserts last so long that our spare parts expense has been drastically reduced. Filters seem to last forever because the overspray is virtually nothing.” Rejects are almost non-existent at Sternberg, and are never due to the powder application. According to George, “These guns are so incredibly efficient, we get over 70% transfer efficiency and save a ton of money on powder.”
Please note: The above Case Study has been prepared by Gema USA, a supplier of Modean Industries, and is being reproduced with Gema USA’s permission. Hani Azzam of Modean Industries supervised the design and engineering of several of the original Gema systems in the United States.