Paint center for giants

The huge new building of a modern painting center.
(Photo: Ott GmbH)

Ott in Ehingen invests in new building for large vehicles

Ott GmbH & Co KG, Ehingen (Baden-Württemberg) has invested in the future of its large vehicle and industrial painting division with a new building.
An ultra-modern paint center for giants has been built on the approximately 15,000 square meter premises in Öpfingen.
– Johanna Ott-Trowitzsch and Oliver Trowitzsch are the fifth generation of the family business, which was founded in 1864.
Company founder Robert Ott started out as a sign painter and photographer with a painting business around 160 years ago.
Over the years, the company has continued to expand.
Today, the company employs 60 people.

The successful paint center comprises the bodywork and paint, large vehicle painting and industrial painting as well as advertising technology divisions.
Due to a lack of further expansion opportunities at the headquarters in Ehingen, the entrepreneurial family decided to relocate the large vehicle and industrial painting division to the neighboring community of Öpfingen by building a new building.

Large vehicles include, in particular, mobile cranes, excavators, construction vehicles, trucks, buses, silo and tanker trucks, as well as containers.
Ott serves customers from southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland in this business segment.

For Oliver Trowitzsch, a key reason for the new location was the proximity to Liebherr in Ehingen, a leading global manufacturer of mobile cranes and world market leader for mobile cranes, which are painted professionally and to very high quality standards at the Ott paint center.
As an investment in the future, the expansion possibilities of a further 8,000 square meters of land also played an important role.

Paint shop for giant cranes.
Photo: Sehon

SEHON from Gechingen near Stuttgart supplied the 3 painting systems in the new 5,000 m² painting center.
All three booths are combination paint booths, i.e. paint systems with integrated drying mode.
Depending on the vehicle type, the telescopes are painted one after the other in the first paint booth, the undercarriages in the second and the uppercarriages in the third.
According to Tiemo Sehon, this is a particular challenge simply because of the dimensions, especially with the volumes of supply and exhaust air to be moved at a hall height of up to 22 meters.

According to Oliver Trowitzsch, there were several reasons for choosing SEHON.
The main reason was that SEHON not only impressed with its state-of-the-art paint shop technology, but also with its unique sustainability concept, which plays a decisive role for Ott in the new paint center.

All cabins are equipped with heat recovery using rotary heat exchangers.
Heating is provided by pumped hot water.
The cabin units have several energy-saving modules and intelligent energy-saving controls.

A unique combination of energy-saving paint shop unit technology in conjunction with a perfectly coordinated combined heat and power unit leads to enormous energy savings at Ott, and therefore also to a significant reduction in CO₂.

Ultimately, the appropriate technology, controlled by an energy management system, not only supplies the energy for the paint booths and the preparation and finishing areas, but also hot water for the in-house car wash and heating energy for the entire building.

As a result, Ott has achieved energy self-sufficiency of 80% in the new paint center.
“Compared to before, we only have to buy in a maximum of 20% of the energy we need,” says Oliver Trowitzsch.
A second CHP unit is already being planned.

As most large vehicles are driven to Ott via the road network for painting, all vehicles must be thoroughly cleaned in the first process step.
And, of course, oil and grease must also be removed.
A special washing line for manual cleaning was developed for this purpose.
A water treatment system ensures that the process water from the wash bay is collected and made available crystal clear for the next wash cycles in a closed circuit.
This means that hardly any additional fresh water is required.
Any water volatilization is compensated for by rainwater.
Another important point for resource conservation and sustainability.

In principle, the painting processes for vehicle giants are no different from normal car painting: Vehicle preparation, painting, drying, finish.
However, everything here is bigger, higher and wider.
And this starts with the vehicle itself, which requires much more space – just for maneuvering and painting.
Logically, the employees are real specialists in the professional painting of giants, which requires a great deal of expertise and precision.

According to Oliver Trowitzsch, if it weren’t for corona, there would certainly have been an inauguration ceremony for the forward-looking new building of the traditional Ehingen-based company: “But that’s out of the question at the moment. We are glad that we were able to relocate at the turn of the year with the full support of all our employees, that we are allowed to work and that production in Öpfingen was able to start up smoothly. Postponed is not canceled.”

“We take care of issues,” Tiemo Sehon continues, “that many other manufacturers cannot do to the same extent. It is perfectly normal for us to see ourselves as an integrative partner who is involved right from the preliminary planning stage, in discussions with architects and in energy and process management, contributing important expertise in the process.”

When purchasing a paint shop, the importance of complying with legal regulations, guidelines and standards is often overlooked.
If these are disregarded or not adhered to, the paint store is entering unsafe territory because the company and its employees are permanently at risk.
This is because the company owner is liable for operational safety.

This is why SEHON ensures that its systems comply with legal requirements.
According to Tiemo Sehon, some providers only pay lip service to this, but at SEHON it is a transparent and comprehensible plus.

For a paint store, the purchase of a paint shop, as well as its modernization, is not an everyday task.
A company owner is often only confronted with this once or twice in their working life.
It is therefore important to bring yourself up to date before making a purchase and to find out which partner offers the best overall concept and the best possible technology in order to provide optimum support for the upcoming project from A to Z.

According to Tiemo Sehon, his company offers the best conditions for this and over 40 years of experience: “For our customers from trade, industry and the automotive sector, we are an absolutely reliable partner for all issues relating to new builds, conversions and modernization. We create the perfect symbiosis of high-tech and green technology in every business. In an all-round carefree package, with a high degree of future security.”

Contact: sehon-lackieranlagen.de | info@sehon.de

Author: Michael Teschke, April 20, 2021 | Photos: Ott GmbH & Co KG, Sehon innovative paint systems

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