Finishing process - Varnishing
The coating plants in Italy, Hungary and France are designed
and built to respect the environment and environmental safety
regulations pertaining to Powder coating is completely "waste-
free": it uses automatic booths for application and recovery of all
dispensed parts and does so by means of filters that retain 99%
of the coating waste.
These booths do not contain solvents and the processing waste
is confined and appropriately disposed of as special (non-toxic)
waste. The pre-treatment tunnel consists of six closed-cycle
washing tanks, free of organic volatile compounds, containing
water and a 3% solution of iron phosphates.
The effluent is recycled and purified downstream by means of
demineralisation rinse columns. The tanks last on average 6/8
months and, once exhausted, the substances are disposed of in
third-party purification plants, in full compliance with environmental
regulations.
To complete the powder coating, liquid finishing uses paints (made
exclusively for us in cooperation with Basf and Akzo) of a medium-
high solid, low-solvent acrylic nature, and the technical yield is
superior to any approved bodywork paint (a smaller quantity is
needed than is usually used elsewhere). We also have an instant
paint mixing plant that optimises raw material preparation and
consumption.
In order to recover and optimise production costs, an atmospheric
solvent distiller is used: this makes it possible to recover all the
reusable parts of the cleaning and paint preparation solvents.
Lastly, this allows lowering the threshold of "VOCs in the
atmosphere", for which Artemide draws up a consolidated account
to be submitted for the environmental controls of the regional
body to which Artemide is linked for plant authorisations. In the
spray booth, the solid parts of the overspray are captured and
retained in special, certified dry filters which, once exhausted, are
always disposed of in compliance with regulations.
Coating Machinery - Artemide Factory
Pregnana Milanese
V A L U E S , K N O W L E D G E & K N O W- H O W T O R E A L I Z E U N I V E R S A L P R O J E C T S
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y R E P O R T
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