Serving heavy mechanical engineering

The massive workpieces at Levytyö Särkinen's workshop are handled with extra care. The customers' high quality standards must not be compromised.

A giant part of a wind turbine has been shaped into a cylinder by a heavy-duty mangle. The stress on the weld seam is removed by heating the piece in an oven, after which the whole piece is sprayed using the TEKNOZINC 80 SE zinc rich epoxy primer. After machining, the piece is finished off with a layer of TEKNODUR COMBI 3430 polyurethane paint.

“Wind power plants are extremely keen on detail. There must be no marks of any kind on the parts. Painting these parts is very challenging and you have to be extremely careful handling them,” says Tommi Saesvuo, paint shop supervisor.

A 1-layer system whenever possible

The 1-layer polyurethane system, given in specifications provided by the customer, was taken into use three years ago. “Most of the workpieces we paint are done with the TEKNODUR COMBI 3430 polyurethane paint. Whenever we can, we use the 1-layer system, because it shortens the lead time by quite a bit,” Saesvuo says.

The wet paint shop was completed ten years ago and today 99 percent of the paints used there are from Teknos. “We're familiar with the paints and everything works fine, so there has been no need to change our paint supplier. Besides, Teknos paints dry faster than other paints. In best-case scenarios, the lead time of the whole process is only three hours,” says Saesvuo. “If we need special shades or any changes in the paint, we get them,” he concludes. 

Tommi Saesvuo, paint shop supervisor at Levytyö Särkinen (left) with Krister Wessman from Teknos.

“Usually we collect items to be painted with the same shade and then do them all in a row,” Saesvuo says, showing the electronic production management system where color codes indicate the current status of the jobs and when they will be completed.

The workpieces are moving along on a conveyor line hanging from the ceiling. Environmental factors have also been taken into consideration at every stage of the production process.

An effective paint extraction wall

Workpieces too large for the paint shop are coated in the hangar itself. However, there are no signs of paint sprayed outside of the workpiece. Thanks to effective ventilation and an equally effective paint extraction wall, the floor and the walls are clean of paint.

Thanks to an effective paint extraction wall, the floor and the walls are clear of paint.

The word 'fuse' gets a new meaning when Tommi Saesvuo shows a pile of massive steel plates on the floor. “These are the 'fuses' of the stone crushers. When a stone is too hard and the crusher is unable to crush it, the plate bends and the machines shut down. Then you remove the blockage and change the ‘fuse’,” Tommi explains.

Expanding the production facilities

The future of Levytyö Särkinen looks bright. There is enough work and there are a couple of new big projects planned for next spring. 

“Right now, we are expanding our production space to 10,000 square meters. The new facilities will be taken into use before the end of the year,” says Samuli Särkinen, the CEO of Levytyö Särkinen.

The new facilities will have a lift capacity of 60 tons and a lift height of over 10 meters. The oven of the new facility will allow the thermal treatment of even very large workpieces.