Stellantis’ new paintshop to double capacity at Kenitra plant and reuse paint robots from other facilities.
In 2022 Stellantis invested €300m in its Kenitra manufacturing facility in Morocco to increase production capacity and introduce its ‘smart car’ platform. This was to double production capacity to 400,000 vehicles per year along with 50,000 electric mobility units.
The new additions to the plant are intended to improve energy optimisation and increase Stellantis’ production capacity for battery-powered vehicles and hybrid models across the Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat brands.
The new paintshop from Dürr will handle 30 bodies per hour and allows for environmentally friendly and energy-saving electric car coating and will use repurposed paint robots from other plants in the group to conserve resources.
Dürr says the process for pretreatment and cathodic electrocoating being applied in the new facility consumes less water, fewer chemicals, and less heating energy as the new conveyor system eliminates the need for inclined tank entrances and exits. This shortens the immersion tank length by up to six meters and reduces tank volume. Lower energy and material consumption also reduces operating and unit costs.
Drying and curing will be done using a new electric oven, which features and air flow conduction system that heats and cools car bodies evenly from the inside out. Dürr says this design reduces thermal-structural stresses and lowers car body heating time by up to 30%.
Paint application will use a wet-on-wet technology, which includes two-tone painting across three exterior painting stations, and utilises robots and application technology from existing Italian plants. In addition, Dürr notes that equipment, such as air supply units, heaters, and conveyors, are being transported from Europe to Morocco for reuse and that repurposing can support constructing paintshops within challenging time and cost constraints.
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