Midlands based manufacturer Nova Group make significant investment in new paint finishing facility

Nova group have been producing smartly designed and well-crafted steel fabricated products for over 40 years. Previously known as Fabriweld and based centrally in Nottingham they are easily accessible. Nova Groups products and services support manufactures and OEM across multiple segments.

Group CEO David Ritchie went on to explain ‘At Nova we have a real passion for functional and aesthetically pleasing design. We offer an end-to-end service from design through to production. Our products are beautifully crafted by caring, enthusiastic, experienced and highly skilled individuals and, paired with Global brands that find their way into homes in over 30+ countries. As part of a recent growth strategy Nova has opened up its manufacturing capabilities to the wider market, mobilising their core competences in manufacturing and fabrication to supply products and services to the wider market. In recent years Nova Group have been providing fabricated, coated and assembled products into new sectors including the Digital Signage (Kiosks and Enclosure), EV charging and educational furniture markets

Graham Hannath, CTO of the Nova Group went on to explain ‘As part of a business evaluation project it was clear that we needed to make some strategic investments to support our ambitious long term growth plan, we identified three key focus areas;

1) Increase capacity, supporting a quicker turnaround to meet customer demand.

2) Improve sustainability, reducing the manufacturing carbon footprint and meet our ISO14001 target.

3) Delivering premium finished goods to our client base across the segments we serve.

David went on to explain ‘At Nova we have run a powder coating facility for many years, however it was a labour intensive, created lots of waste due to the traditional coating booth design, quality was down to the operator in terms of the standards produced. Having conducted a detailed market evaluation we identified Gema Europe to supply a highly automated, efficient booth system that would deliver our objectives.’

Pictured right is operator Nicky Walter performing a colour change on the OC06 OptiCentre.

David continued ‘Early indications would suggest that we have reduced the waste to landfill by approximately 80%. The automatic reciprocation system is supporting our desire to achieve consistently high-quality results, the icing on the cake is that we have trebled our production capacity. The increased work envelope allows us to process larger components with products up to 2500mm long x 800mm wide x 1500mm high.’

The new powder paint system installed includes an automated MagicCompact booth pictured above, this is the latest generation technology from global leading supplier Gema. Nova Groups Paint line manager Nicky Walters explains ‘The booth which is mostly self-cleaning and designed for fast colour changes, allows us to work extremely flexibly between jobs. We have gone from what was an extremely manually intensive operation to one which is over 90% automatic, our main focus now is on productivity and optimizing the loading of the line.

When specifying the equipment we opted for the ultrasonic Sieve, which ensures contamination free powder conditioning, is important for our end users, particularly our premium audio and visual clients as well as our digital displays. The Mono-cyclone and After Filter ensures that the operating environment is always clean and the waste levels are extremely low, ensuring we have high utilization of raw materials, the difference between the new and old systems is night and day.’

The key benefits from the Gema MagicCompact Booth include;

80% reduction in powder waste to landfill

Automated process

Complies with all of the latest ATEX legislation

Cleaner working environment

Trebled production capacity

Significant improvements in yield from powder

Quality improvements

Repeatable process and coating results

Low maintenance requirements

David Ritchie concluded ‘Having visited several installations Gema’s Magic Compact delivered the benefits we were looking to achieve, its robust quality and more importantly aftersales service provision Gema offer were also key parts of our decision process around this investment. The professionalism and knowledge around their products every step of the journey has been superb, from technical sales, design, installation and commissioning teams it has been a pleasure to deal with Gema and further reinforced that we have made the right decision to select the industry leaders as our partner.’

Leon Hogg, General Manager UK for Gema, explained ‘It was clear during the evaluation stages that the team at Nova Group were keen to invest in the very latest innovations that deliver quality and performance benefits to their existing and future customers. With the high demand for quality, repeatability and efficiency we quickly arrived at the Magic Compact fast colour change booth as the solution. An automated Industry 4.0 based system that provided the perfect strategic fit when it comes to matching the level of performance and efficiency David Ritchie and his team were looking for. This investment in the very latest technology puts Nova Group at the forefront of premium finished products.

Visit: www.gema.com