Fitting out Russian president Vladimir Putin’s personal plane is just one of the jobs for joinery manufacturer Diamonite which has bought two new finishing lines in a major investment.
Interior fittings for the Ilyushin 96 airliner are being manufactured and finished at the Bristol company prior to installation in Russia early in 2003.
Diamonite, which opened a 45,000ft2 aircraft division near its Goodneston Road factory in September, believes that finishing quality and versatility are crucial to the company’s future, especially in the supply of joinery component kits to designers and fitters.
A UV finishing and curing line from Italian-based Cefla was installed at the 80,000ft2 Goodneston Road site, to be used with Arch Coatings treatment technologies. The multi-function line measuring around 30m by 4m, occupies 3,000ft2 of floor space.
The Cefla line features a top and bottom pre-treatment brushing station, with full anti-static controls to remove dust and debris from components before spraying. The sealed spray compartment has two oscillating spray arms, each with six application guns and spray heads controlled by photo electric cells.
The solvent content of Dual Cure UV materials is evaporated within eight minutes by a two-stage drying process, consisting of low pressure fluorescent UV lamps and then gallium and mercury high pressure UV lamps.
As well as Dual Cure UV coatings, Diamonite intends using base coats, in conjunction with two pack polyurethanes, and water-based primers to open up new market opportunities.
The second finishing line, costing £500,000 from a Japanese manufacturer, is based at the aircraft division and involves printing a paper design onto wood based panels and other materials, with a polyurethane finish.
