It’s seven o'clock on a Monday night at the Lowbake factory in Victoria. Gathered around a white board are engineers and programmers trying to work out some further refinement to the company's already well-respected IR gas robot arch system.
Another programmer, who clearly prefers work to home, points out with pride the highly sophisticated control panel: “It's online. We’ve got it set up so that if there’s a problem in, say, a Perth shop we can fix it remotely from our end.”
Previously I was sitting in the boardroom with Lowbake's managing director Mark Williams. The table is covered in minutely detailed CAD drawings. Given the choice, Williams and his team like to control every aspect of the build of a new bake oven or prep area from shop layout to air line mix, down to the positioning of every power socket. Why? Because they all clearly live and breath this business and are driven by getting every aspect right. This attitude has no doubt contributed to the company’s huge success in recent years.
A quote from Lowbake is a substantial document with a 3D view of how the equipment will be constructed, with exhaustive lists of everything that is included in the work and evidence of compliance with the 4114 spray booth safety standard.
Apart from a way above average attention to detail, this level of minutiae is necessary for accurate quoting, Williams says. His team laser measures the building, works out turning radius, office design, as well as a host of other criteria. Williams prides himself of the complete nature of a Lowbake quote – with no unforeseen factors cropping up after the owner has signed on the dotted line.
Williams worked with NSW Autobody Repairer of the Year award winner, the equally detail-oriented Derek Bell of ESR Prestige. He even made the spectacular folded metal ceiling on the enormous sheet metal stamping/cutting machines in the factory, as well as the 'theatre' spray booths and paint mixing room. The vast majority of Lowbake product is produced in-house – that way Williams can oversee and ensure that they conform to his exacting standards.
The factory has its own paint mixing room, training area, electronics office, assembly areas and what one might suspect is Williams' ‘nursery’ for his special baby, the IR gas robot. These were originally bought in from Italy, but one wouldn’t expect Williams to be entirely comfortable selling other people’s work. The current version is Mk 3 – it uses 50 per cent less gas that the first model. Williams says it allows one painter to finish 12 cars in one day, as it cures instantly.
Williams seems prepared to lend his expertise to any area of smash repair business. We walked past a quoting booth the company is building to put in the middle of a panel shop to boost productivity.
From a background as an instrument technician, Williams also ran a manufacturing plant in Singapore. He started Lowbake to prove he could build brilliant spray booths, and judging by the number of Lowbakes in panel shops across Australia, his customers definitely think he's on to something.
Lowbake’s new RADS (rapid air drying system)
Lowbake’s latest product offering is a simple rapid air drying system (RADS). The system can be included in a new oven or retrofitted to an existing one. RADS is radio-controlled with full zone management. The operator decides which zones are needed on each job, which reduces energy consumption.
RADS works by drawing filtered air from inside the oven, which is discharged through eight adjustable nozzles per corner (with ionisation), under high pressure to create the jets of air ideal for curing waterborne jobs. Another benefit is that it doesn’t use high volumes of compressed air. The system is made at the Lowbake factory in Dandenong, Victoria, in full compliance with Australian regulations.
For more details phone Lowbake on: 1800 337 340.