Cleaning Q&A: Increasing Speed of Stripping Wheels

Q. I work for a company that reconditions all types of wheel rims and one of the challenges is stripping wheels that have up to 30 mils of paint on them. To compete in this market, we need to turn around wheels in less than 24 hours. Quickly stripping the wheels is the biggest problem we have, often taking about 2 to 3 days. Some of these wheels are powder coated with either epoxy or polyurethane primers. Can you recommend a stripping method that will help me increase the speed of removal? 

A. You certainly have set an aggressive goal in targeting to turn around these wheels in less than 24 hours. Given the variety coming through your shop, consider a mechanical or blast removal system for the paint and coating removal. Also consider different blast media such as sand, glass and plastic. It may be necessary to start with a more aggressive media type, and then move to 
    a lighter, less damaging type 
    of media (this should work 
    much more quickly than the chemical stripping methods you are using today).Because this equipment tends to be cellular, it should be scalable based on how your business grows.

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Originally published in the March 2016 issue.