How to paint a kart chassis. The secrets of the method used by CRG

INTRO

While painting could seem only a finishing touch in the manufacturing of a kart chassis, it actually is an essential step, both in terms of brand identity, since the chassis color (especially before the introduction of fairing kits) is one of the distinctive traits of each brand, and for the quality of the finished product. The purpose of the paint, in fact, is also to avoid the formation of rust on the molybdenum chrome steel tubes of the frame. There are few kart manufacturing companies which manage the painting process in-house. One of them is CRG, historic Italian company based in Desenzano del Garda (Brescia) which gave us the exclusive opportunity of visiting its painting department to discover, step-by-step, how “black” chassis are painted.

The chassis color is one of the distinctive features of each kart brand

The chassis color is one of the distinctive features of each kart brand © CRG Website

1 THE SYSTEM

At CRG, the various steps that a chassis must take to get to the painting phase take place through a conveyor belt which guarantees continuity and speed of work.
By dividing the process over multiple stations, we can identify the following steps: washing and drying, abrasive blasting, painting and oven. At full capacity, the department manages to have about 60 chassis ready in 8 working hours, counting on the presence of two operators. The first operator takes care of the painting stage while the second operator deals with the manual cleaning of the frames and the loading/unloading of the system.

Through the map of the system installed at CRG, we can view the various stations which make up the automated painting process of the Italian manufacturing company

2 WASHING AND DRYING

The raw frames coming directly from the welding department, are hung to the hooks of the conveyor system which allows the chassis to go autonomously through the various working processes. The first step is washing. The chassis enters into a special machine that is kept at an internal temperature of 48 °C. Here, it is washed with a jet of high-pressure water which is used to degrease it from oils and other residues remaining from the previous cutting, bending and welding steps. The second operation involves drying, which takes place at a temperature of 87 degrees. These two phases (washing and drying) are managed together in the first block of the painting chain. The machine has a capacity of 4 chassis.

The washing phase serves to remove oils and residues from previous work processes from the chassis

HOW TO PAINT A KART CHASSIS ACCORDING TO CRG