Modern flat line finishing

  Several of the shops I have worked at have gone to some form of flat line finishing. We had a Makor profile sander and finish line with an automated loader in Nevada, a Cefla reciprocating flat line sprayer in Florida and now in MA we have a Superfici Bravo Robot. This is by far the best flat line I have used due to the 5th gun which will perfectly spray edges on just about any shaped object.

 The thing about using these machines is that it makes you come up with different finish schedules in order to use the machine at its fullest capacity. We spray stains through our machine (we were told you can't) and it works fantastic.  One trick I have found when trying to match a wiped stain when spraying is to use a dye stain that mixes with acetone (we use Keystone Nerosol but Sherwin Williams S61 works as well) and then add a proportion of water to the mix to force the stain deeper into the pores. Usually 3 parts acetone to 1 part water but it depends on the look.

We also have a Cyclomix so the shorter pot life of the 2K urethanes we spray are not an issue. We also do high gloss pigmented panels. (primer and paint) At the end of the line we have a forced air drying oven which really helps with production.