Discover how OXECO helped Polkima slash their surface preparation time by 90%

Established in 1988, Polkima is a renowned industrial leader, innovator and exporter in the Turkish composites industry. The company produces advanced tooling solutions and finished composite parts. It creates proprietary production methods and processes for use in the global automotive sector.

Parts produced by Polkima are found globally in the automotive, entertainment and marine sectors and customers include Mercedes-Benz, Daimler, JCB and Ford.

“The use of KOTEFAST™ has created a cleaner and healthier environment for our team, shortened considerably our process time and given us peace of mind as it has proven to be extremely efficient in providing a perfect bond for the paint or primer.”

To meet growing demand for SMC composite parts for automotive, Polkima needed to increase its facilities for surface preparation and painting. Had the company used its previous process of sanding and surface preparation, it would have needed to increase floor space and headcount. This would have been an inefficient and expensive solution.

Time saving through chemical innovation

To solve this issue, Polkima approached OXECO with regards to its breakthrough surface treatments. OXECO supported Polkima in evaluating its KOTEFAST™ products.

KOTEFAST™ removes the need for sanding as a surface preparation prior to painting composite parts. Polkima needed to paint truck cab parts for Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Ford, as well as tractor hoods and bus interiors.

OXECO proved that its spray-applied KOTEFAST™ product was able to satisfy the stringent standards of both Polkima and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). KOTEFAST™ achieved the industry standards for paint adhesion and surface finish, ensuring that Polkima was determined to adopt the use of KOTEFAST™ as its preferred method of surface preparation for painted SMC parts. With support from OXECO, this was easily integrated into the existing painting line.

The application of KOTEFAST™ product allowed Polkima to go from mold to paint in just one efficient step. With KOTEFAST™, sanding was no longer needed. Several automotive parts need painting on both the front and reverse. Previously, this proved particularly time intensive. Using KOTEFAST™, the parts could be handled easily. There was an improvement in final paint quality leading to greater customer satisfaction and fewer reject parts.

As KOTEFAST™ is a spray-applied liquid surface preparation, Polkima was able to evenly prepare complex, hard-to-reach areas, such as sharp corners of strengthening ribs and fixing bosses. In the past, surface preparation using abrasion on complex shapes was very difficult and could lead to inconsistent surface preparation and poor paint adhesion.

KOTEFAST™ created a healthier and cleaner manufacturing environment. Vibrations were removed and dust was completely eliminated. This increased worker satisfaction and the general working environment.

Polkima benefited from a reduced surface preparation time of up to 90%.

It allowed for a 10-fold increase in paint preparation capacity without the need for additional floorspace and headcount.

This increased productivity equated to reducing the amount of labor required for surface preparation from 8 people to 1 person for the same output.

Chairman of Polkima, Anthony Gallia on OXECO’S KOTEFAST product.

“We chose KOTEFAST™ for surface preparation of our SMC-produced parts for several reasons. The surfaces of the parts are no longer sanded prior to painting, eliminating the risk of pinholes due to surface damage caused by sanding. There is no dust created as would be during sanding. For parts painted on their internal face, it is possible to properly prepare surfaces between strengthening ribs, which would be very difficult to achieve by sanding.

"The use of KOTEFAST™ has created a cleaner and healthier environment for our team, shortened considerably our process time and given us peace of mind as it has proven to be extremely efficient in providing a perfect bond for the paint or primer.”