The courage to innovate: Krazer Fensterbau and ADLER Lacke bring a pioneering project to life

Krazer Fensterbau is a company like many others in Germany: a small, fine craft business with tradition, character and the commitment to quality expected of a master craftsman’s firm. Specialising in high-quality windows, doors and glass façades, this family-run business from Mutlangen (Baden-Württemberg) has earned an excellent reputation and carries out demanding projects ranging from upmarket residential construction to the restoration of listed buildings. For several years now, senior partner Siegfried Krazer has been supported by the next generation: his daughter Jasmin, a newly qualified master glazier, and his son Michael, who has completed his master’s degree in Rosenheim. Generational changes are often an opportunity to breathe new life into a business, rethink established processes and try something new. In the case of Krazer Fensterbau, however, it was not just a breath of fresh air – rather, Michael Krazer sparked a veritable whirlwind and implemented a project that has never before existed in this shape in Germany.

Courage to innovate

Plans had long been in place to relocate production from the existing, cramped company premises in the centre of Mutlangen to a hall in the industrial estate. In the process, the production processes were also put under the microscope, particularly those relating to surface treatment. Up until then, Krazer had been coating windows in the same way as many smaller window manufacturers: the windows were dipped by hand and then given a primer and top coat at a manual spray booth – a laborious process requiring each window to be handled multiple times, as well as being error-prone and material-intensive. There must be a better way, thought Michael Krazer – and Hans-Jürgen Benzinger, his account manager at the Austrian paint manufacturer ADLER, had the perfect solution. The new coating process developed by ADLER allows the entire three-coat system to be applied fully automatically using a spraying robot.

Automation for every workshop

At the heart of the innovative system is the Aquawood Primo RSQ spray primer. “Wooden windows are usually primed using a dip or flood process and then given an intermediate and top coat using a spray process. For manufacturers, this generally means either investing in a complete industrial coating plant or coating in the traditional way by hand,” explains Matthias Stötzel, Head of Window Application Technology at ADLER. “With our new spray primer, the entire coating process can be carried out using a spray robot. This enables a high degree of automation with predictable investment and space requirements.” The benefits: short throughput times, minimal material and cleaning costs, enormous savings in working time, and a clean working environment. And above all: significantly higher surface quality, as the even application by the robot means runs, clouding, fingerprints and dust marks are a thing of the past.

Coordinated processes

For Michael Krazer, Benzinger and Stötzel were preaching to the converted. “On the one hand, due to the energy-efficient design of our new hall and the heat pump-based heating system, manual painting with exhaust air was out of the question. On the other hand, we were also looking for ways to make the work easier through automation,” says Krazer. Together with Matthias Stötzel, he developed a process in which primer coat, intermediate coat and topcoat are sprayed by the robot in recirculating air mode. From planning the new system through fine-tuning the coating process and materials to programming the robot, dedication and teamwork were required until even the most complex window elements in the most delicate colour shades were perfectly coated. “Our application engineering team and Thomas Tuschy, our field service technician, have done a fantastic job,” praises Matthias Stötzel. “Because our new coating concept involves not only high product quality, but also a great deal of research and process knowledge relating to plant and processing technology.”

Investment in the future

The effort has more than paid off: “It was, of course, quite a bit of work until everything was running smoothly, but thanks to the excellent support from ADLER, everything is now running like clockwork,” explains Michael Krazer. The new system handles the entire production spectrum: timber and timber-aluminium windows, front doors and façade elements, with opaque and glazing finishes, on any type of wood and in any colour. The elements are first hung on one of the 20 crossbars, pass through the spray robot three times, and drying and intermediate sanding take place whilst the parts are suspended. This is just one of the many advantages Krazer lists: “We used to have to pour 60 litres of material into the dip tank alone – now we work with 4-litre cans, can plan our requirements well and always have fresh material. A colour change takes just a few minutes, and cleaning effort, material loss and rinse water volumes are minimal. Even large-format and heavy parts can be coated without any problems; the workshop stays clean, and thanks to the spray robot’s recirculating air operation, we have hardly any heat loss.” Added to this is a significantly improved, consistent surface quality without the need for rework – and a huge simplification of day-to-day work: “The robot is easy to operate and works completely independently. The coating happens more or less in the background, and we have more time for other tasks.” As a result, switching the coating process to the innovative ADLER system proved to be a real stroke of luck, says Michael Krazer: “We now have all the benefits of a high degree of automation, tailored to the conditions of a traditional craft business. This is an excellent investment in the successful future of our company!”

ADLER – paint runs through our veins

With 730 employees, ADLER is Austria's leading manufacturer of varnishes, paints and wood preservatives. Founded in 1934 by Johann Berghofer, this family business is now managed by a member of the third generation, Andrea Berghofer. More than 20,000 tons of paint leave the plant in Schwaz, ADLER's only production site, every year and are shipped to customers throughout Europe and beyond. Innovation and sustainability are the foundations of the corporate strategy. In doing so, ADLER focuses on reducing its CO₂ footprint, cycle-oriented product development and numerous partnerships for science and environmental protection.