Pre-treatment is an essential step in the painting process as it forms the basis for optimum paint adhesion. In conventional systems, workpieces are usually cleaned and degreased with alkaline or acidic cleaners at high temperatures of 50-80 °C in order to efficiently dissolve grease and oil. This temperature maintenance requires a large amount of process heat throughout the year, which is usually provided by fossil fuels.
Switching to a high-temperature heat pump as an alternative energy source would be technically possible, but in most cases uneconomical, as the investment costs are high and the energy-saving effect remains limited. A more efficient solution could therefore be to adapt the process by using a so-called cold cleaner. This involves cleaning with significantly lower water temperatures of just 15-25 °C, which means that no additional thermal energy is required to heat the cleaning tanks.
This change means that the heat supply for pre-treatment can be largely eliminated, which reduces the overall energy requirement of a paint shop by up to 25 %. This not only leads to considerable savings in fossil fuels, but also contributes to the sustainable optimization of the painting process.