A drum of color
It's the mass that makes the difference: Up to 150,000 small parts made of metal, plastic, wood or glass go into the drum at Rotover in one fell swoop. In this unusual way, the Wuppertal-based company has been adding high-quality color to bulk materials for 25 years.
Often, the tiny pieces are only a few millimeters in size and weigh a few grams. Technical springs and screws, but also textile accessories such as zips, hooks and eyelets are among the diverse products that Philipp and Thomas Hülsemann, together with their ten-man team, paint and coat every day in a two-shift operation.
In order to guarantee an efficient, consistently good quality result, the family business specialized in a special application process at an early stage. "We now use 16 heated drums for painting, which rotate evenly during paint application. This keeps the small parts moving at all times while a spray nozzle system sprays on the paint. This ensures that each individual component receives a perfect surface finish evenly and all around - without the parts sticking together," says Philipp Hülsemann, describing the hot-drum painting technique.

Painting and drying in one
There is also another decisive advantage in terms of economy and speed. Thomas Hülsemann, who manages the business at Rotover together with his brother, explains it: "The interplay between movement and temperature in the drum creates the prerequisite that coating and drying take place almost simultaneously within one work process. This means that as soon as the paint is applied to the rotating parts, it dries out immediately. So a new coat can be applied directly. This makes hot-drum coating a clever alternative to other application techniques that are much more cumbersome and take a second time."

Specialties from the sister
A significant contribution to the development of the modern coating process was made by coatings manufacturer Huelsemann Coatings, a sister company of Rotover and a long-standing expert in the development of coatings for small parts. The broad industrial coatings range also includes the "mini coatings" that are mainly used at Rotover. These include decorative coatings in metallic, galvanic look or neon look, as well as high-gloss or matte qualities in an infinite number of color shades that give small parts an attractive, valuable appearance. But functional coatings are also processed to meet the respective requirements in practical use.

An all-round talent in color
"A paint finish not only makes a good impression, but also performs numerous tasks," notes plant manager Michael Teuber. "For example, it must protect against mechanical and chemical influences, it must be temperature-resistant and free of ecologically harmful ingredients, and of course it should adhere optimally and last for a long time. Thanks to our close cooperation with the Huelsemann company, we are able to
to find the right customer-specific solution for every application."

A complete solution on offer
This teamwork is a foundation of Rotover's core competence. Philipp Hülsemann puts it in a nutshell: "Although we work on behalf of customers, we offer more than a conventional job coater. Our clients get an individual system solution from us, completely from a single source." Word of this has spread over the past 30 years. Whether from the clothing industry, the automotive sector, the electrical industry or furniture manufacturing - the company reports that today producers of mass-produced small parts from many European countries come to Wuppertal to have work done at the painting specialist Rotover.

Brigitte Waldens
Photo: Günter Lintl

Contact
Rotover Paint Finishing Technology GmbH
Essener Strasse 60
42329 Wuppertal
Phone 0202 271 640
Fax 0202 271 64 35
www.rotover.de