The G-Chrome® Process

The wheel is loaded on the line and then goes into a washer to clean and pre-treat the wheel.  Once the wheel leaves the washer a robot grabs the wheel and places it under a feeder which puts steel ball masks into the lug towers.

The wheel is then placed into the Grey Primer Coating Booth and sprayed.  The robot then places the wheel onto the Grey Primer Cure Oven conveyor where it is cured.  A second robot, pictured at the end of the row above, grabs the wheel and places it into the Base Coat Coating Booth, to put the second coat of powder coating on the wheel.  The second coat is a dark amber color.  The second robot then places the wheel onto the Base Coat Cure Oven conveyor where it is cured.

Upon exiting the Base Coat Cure Oven, the wheel is inspected by the PVD operator and then placed into the PVD Chamber to apply the Chromium Alloy.  The wheel enters the chamber in the dark color and when finished has the bright chrome appearance.

The PVD coated wheel is placed onto a conveyor which takes the wheel to the third Robot.  The third Robot places the wheel into the Clear Coat Booth and the acrylic clear coat is applied to the wheel.

  The wheel is then cured and final inspected.

The technology employed by Winona PVD Coatings uses powder coating and PVD sputtering to achieve the G-Chrome® finish. G-Chrome® encompasses the first scaled, automated production facility that is OEM-quality and designed for part-to-part repeatability. Winona has completed and passed a battery of applicable OEM tests. Click here for the full test report in PDF format. Winona’s automated G-Chrome® plant utilizes a 7-stage Henkel pretreatment system and positive pressure Hepa-filtered clean rooms everywhere the wheel travels between pre-treat, dry off and final inspection. Winona PVD Coatings is currently pursuing TS 16949:2002 quality certification.