BY SHARON SPIELMAN
Kohler Power Systems is an innovative company with a rich history. Read about this
company’s entrance into the power business as well as how utilizing powder over
e-coat offers consistency on its genset enclosures, skids and small brackets.
Born of a breakthrough in
technology, Kohler Power
Systems, Kohler, Wis., has
continued to follow that same path
of innovation for more than 90
years. It is that commitment which
has made the company a global
force in the manufacture and marketing
of a vast array of effective,
affordable power solutions.
Kohler Co.’s entry into the power
business can be traced to the years
immediately following World War I.
With no background in generators or
engines, the company leveraged the
emerging demand for electricity on
farms, its expertise in cast iron, and
its own ingenuity to produce the
Kohler Automatic Power & Light
“power plant” in 1920.
In an age when generators worked
by charging a series of storage batteries,
which in turn provided 32
volts of power, the Kohler Automatic
furnished 110 volts directly to power
lines, turning itself on and off automatically
in response to the demand
for electricity. This tremendous
power output combined with rugged
reliability and ease of operation
made the Automatic a favorite in
rural areas where utility power had
not yet arrived.
Aided by aggressive marketing
and endorsements by the likes of
Admiral Richard Byrd (who had
taken several Kohler generators
along on his first two expeditions to
Antarctica in the 1920s and 1930s),
the company firmly established itself
as an innovator in a growing marketplace.
A continuing focus on bringing
new products to an energy-hungry
public continued to guide the company’s
direction.
U.S. entry into World War II
marked Kohler’s first foray into global
power. Kohler generators were
shipped to troops in every theater,
supporting vital war efforts while
serving as a bulwark against curtailed
wartime demand for their
plumbing goods. Not only were the
generators good business, they
proved the value of a diversified
product base—a philosophy held by
the company to this day.
The post-war years proved a boom
for the generator business, with the
introduction of Kohler diesel generators
and continuing development of
ever-more powerful units throughout
the 1950s and 1960s. Growth in
these years was in part driven by the
need for emergency standby power in
hospitals, factories, government
installations and other facilities that
required an assured source of power.
In the mid-1980s, the company
began to strengthen its distributor
network and increase the size of its
generators, moving beyond the 750
kW mark, which moves a generator
into the big leagues. Together with a
renewed focus on meeting the emerging
needs of new markets, Kohler
generators were again on the map,
spending the rest of the 1980s and
the better part of the 1990s establishing
its position.
Today, Kohler Power Systems
makes 5 kw to 3.25 MW gensets for
the marine, mobile, industrial, rental
and residential/light commercial
markets as well as switchgear and
transfer switches.
Bridging the utility with standby
power is no small job, which is why
the company’s transfer switches are
critical to the all-Kohler power system.
The MPAC™ 1500, Kohler’s
new generation of transfer switches,
is loaded with sophisticated technologies
and advanced design features
that ensure transfer of power to critical-
load applications. When power
fails, power is transferred from the
standby system within one-sixth of a
second. And you continue functioning
as normal.
When it comes to flexibility in generator
paralleling, the company’s PDSeries
automatic systems are
designed to be unparalleled. If utility
power ever fluctuates or fails, the
switchgear instantly reads the situation,
engages the generators and connects
them to your facility.
It is critical that these components
function properly, so Kohler utilizes a
powder over e-coat finish to achieve
consistent, durable results on all its
parts that are manufactured in
house, from small brackets to skids
and enclosures.
According to Lee Montemayor,
engineering technician IV at Kohler
Power Systems, durability, corrosion
resistance and environmental concerns
were the driving factors to utilizing
the powder over e-coat finish.
Cold-rolled steel, hot-rolled steel
and aluminum are among the substrates
used for its parts, so in
2009, when Kohler decided to add
the line, they turned to a nearby
company in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., to
design and build the paint system.
“I hold them in the highest
regard as they listened to our
needs for a textured paint system
that would make our gensets even
more impressive,” says Darren
Hermanson, project manager of the
paint system at Kohler Power
Systems. “The textured paint system
allows for our generators
housings to withstand the unforgiving
weather conditions they are
placed in.”
The Line
Kohler’s paint system uses a powerand-
free conveyor to transport product.
When running at high speed,
the line travels at 45 fpm. Low
speed is 11 fpm, which is used
through the powder and powder
cure process. The pretreatment/
e-coat is all immersion, and has
many stages.
• Tank 1 Aggressive steel cleaner
• Tank 2 Multi-metal cleaner for
all substrates
• Tank 3 Rinse - counter flowed
from tank
4
• Tank 4 Rinse – counter flowed
to tank 3 based on conductivity
• Tank 5 Zirconium-based
conversion coating
• Tank 6 Counter flowed from
tank 7
• Tank 7 Counter flowed to tank
6 based on conductivity
• Tank 8 HE e-coat
• Tank 9 Rinse – counter flowed
from tank 10
• Tank 10 Rinse – counter flowed
to tank 9
• Drip stage
• E-coat cure oven
• Cool down zone
The powder application follows
the cool down zone and includes a
few stages. Kohler uses a 20-gun
automatic color booth with a spectrum
feed and reclaim center. Dual
cyclones are used to reclaim powder.
The powder coat curing oven
has an infrared (IR) booster to gel
the parts as they enter the oven.
Then, the finished parts enter a
final cool down zone.
Kohler developed mobile carts
with hanging windows to pre-hang
all of its parts and then roll them
to the line to create maximum
density.
Kohler Power Systems is realizing
the quality and efficiency benefits
from its new paint system, as
both independent and internal laboratory
testing on production units
have achieved amazing results
against corrosion and customers
are taking notice.
For more on Kohler Power Systems,
visit www.kohlerpower.com. Story
concept courtesy of Therma-Tron-X
Inc., Sturgeon Bay, Wis. For more
on TTX, visit www.ttxinc.com.
Sharon Spielman is editor of Powder
Coated Tough magazine. She can be
reached at 847-302-2648 or via email at
.
sspielman@powdercoating.org