Method for managing coating gloss on a coil-coating line

A coil-coating line comprising:

• a paint applicator,
• a heating device including an infrared heater downstream of the paint applicator, and
• an Ultra-Violet curing device and an Electron-Beam curing device, downstream of the heating device,
• the coil-coating line further comprising a gloss management tool for managing gloss of an organic coating formed by application and curing of a wet film of a radcure paint on a moving strip on the coil-coating line, the gloss management tool including:
• a setting module setting a set gloss value Gs of the organic coating, a set gloss range Rs of the gloss of the organic coating and a proportionality constant K of a predefined linear mathematical relation between the temperature of the wet film before Ultra-Violet curing and the gloss of the organic coating after Electron-Beam curing,
• an acquisition module collecting the measure of the temperature T of the wet film in at least a width portion of the moving strip downstream of the infrared heater and upstream of the Ultra-Violet curing device and for collecting the measure of the gloss G of the organic coating in the at least a width portion downstream of the Electron-Beam curing device, and
• a correction module correcting a deviation of the measured gloss G beyond the set gloss range Rs, the correction comprising calculating the corrected temperature Tc to be reached by the wet film, in the at least a width portion downstream of the infrared heater and upstream of the Ultra-Violet curing device, according to equation 1:
• T
• c
• =
• T
• +
• K
• ⁡
• (
• G
• -
• G
• s
• )
• (
• 1
• )

A method for forming an organic coating on a moving strip on a coil-coating line having, sequentially along the path P of the moving strip, a paint applicator, a heating device comprising an infrared heater, an Ultra-Violet curing device and an Electron-Beam curing device, the method comprising the steps of:

• applying a wet film of a radcure paint on the moving strip with the paint applicator;
• heating the wet film of radcure paint in the infrared heater;
• exposing the wet film of radcure paint to UV in the Ultra-Violet curing device;
• curing the wet film of radcure paint in the Electron-Beam device to form the organic coating;
• a gloss of the organic coating being managed by:
• setting a set gloss value Gs of the organic coating, a set gloss range Rs of the gloss of the organic coating and a proportionality constant K of a predefined linear mathematical relation between the temperature of the wet film before Ultra-Violet curing and the gloss of the organic coating after Electron-Beam curing,
• collecting a measure of the temperature T of the wet film in at least a width portion of the moving strip downstream of the infrared heater and upstream of the Ultra-Violet curing device and collecting a measure of the gloss G of the organic coating in the at least a width portion downstream of the Electron-Beam curing device, and
• correcting a deviation of the measured gloss G beyond the set gloss range Rs, this correcting step including a sub-step of calculating the corrected temperature Tc to be reached by the wet film, in the at least a width portion downstream of the infrared heater and upstream of the Ultra-Violet curing device, according to equation 1:
• T
• c
• =
• T
• +
• K
• ⁡
• (
• G
• -
• G
• s
• )
• (
• 1
• )