Above: The quality of the finished product off the Warehouse Range of Bronx Group’s coil coating lines remains identical to that of the conventional, large-run equipment.

Processing lines can be scaled to manage low-volume runs and configured to fit existing footprints, while matching cost and quality goals

September 2020 - With over 50 years’ experience in coil coating lines, The Bronx Group has seen many changes and developments within the metals processing industry. Typically, coil coating and processing lines have been large-volume lines, upwards of 100,000 tons per year. These lines required significant orders, long runs, large buildings and extensive working capital to run them successfully.

However, as Bronx Group continued to conduct its business globally, its leaders recognized that in servicing the market, there has been an emerging need for a more niche solution.

Market research found that small coils of varying colors, widths, lengths and thicknesses were in high demand. The coil coaters and those manufacturers who purchase coated coils required flexibility within their stock range while maintaining limited coil stock and pursuing just-in-time delivery. This can become difficult with the larger process lines, which prefer long runs of one color and cross section to run efficiently.

In the early 2000s, The Bronx Group’s research and development team conceptualized a smaller, more flexible process line range, which is now referred to as the Warehouse Range.

This range of lines provides the flexibility that the company set out to achieve. All three lines handle light-gauge material up to 1,250mm wide (49.2 inches) and can coat at speeds up to 40 meters per minute. Each processes steel from 0.14mm to 0.8mm thick or aluminum from 0.3mm to 1.2mm thick.

The compact double-pass line has an annual output of up to 22,500 tons. The modular double-pass line will process up to 29,000 tons per year and the modular single-pass line will coat up to 58,000 tons a year.

The foundation footprint on which to install the equipment is ideal with the attraction of a lower capital investment, potentially opening opportunities for non-coaters to enter the coil coating market. In spite of the difference in volume, the quality of the finished product off the Warehouse Range of Bronx coil coating lines remains identical to that of the conventional, large-run equipment.

The Bronx Group can build coil coating solutions to fit a small footprint.

Over time, these modular lines garnered interest from smaller manufacturing companies that sought to enter the color coating market. The concept behind these lines and their resulting name is that they would ideally fit within an existing warehouse space at the right level of investment.

Based on that early interest, Bronx went to market, initially finding great demand in Africa, Australasia, Europe and Russia/CIS regions. Over the past decade, the company has experienced great success in these markets, with smaller companies bypassing mills and larger competitors to enter the color coating market and delivering the same quality end product.

Customers’ typical end use industries include roofing and wall cladding, sandwich panels, rainwater goods including gutters and downspouts, and furniture.

A coil entry station (above) and exit accumulators (below) are among the pieces of equipment that make up a Warehouse Range coil coating line.

Bronx’s lower volume range is robust enough for companies with moderate metal processing needs. These niche lines offer a company looking to enter the pre-coated market maximum flexibility, without compromising quality. Additionally, these lines can be combined with several other modules such as pattern and print coatings, paint and metal embossing and film lamination to allow each customer to enhance their product and create higher value product differentiation against their local competition.

Bronx Warehouse systems have been installed in Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Hungary, Nigeria and Australia. In Azerbaijan specifically, Rufat Azizov, managing director of Uni-metal, said that by employing the line purchased from Bronx Group, “we have an opportunity to paint small batches with unique colors.”  The mobility is a huge advantage for smaller suppliers that require a line that is flexible and allows the customer purchasing prepainted coil to improve its own efficiency.

In Uzbekistan, another Bronx Group client required the ability to react promptly to the market demand, particularly in regards to unique colors and pattern coated coil. With a modular Warehouse line, this customer was able to produce the niche colors on a smaller line, offering a broader product and level of products and service to the market than previously seen with imported material.

Additional to providing color-coating solutions, Bronx has a wide range of engineering capabilities and expertise. Its various divisions build and ship high-speed conventional paint lines, galvanizing lines and ancillary equipment, together with such metal processing equipment as precision levelers, embossers, coil packaging, inspection lines and cut-to-length lines.

New Bronx customers are given intensive training on all aspects of coil coating. This includes both classroom and on-the-job training for coil coating equipment operators. MM