Single-Coat System at Hydrema Improves Quality While Reducing VOC Footprint and Increasing Production Output

Hydrema is an established premium manufacturer of construction and earthmoving machinery. As a Danish, family-owned company, Hydrema combines technical expertise with a clear brand identity. The company’s headquarters is in Støvring, Denmark, with another key production site located in Weimar, Germany. Manufacturing takes place exclusively at these two locations, while the machines are shipped worldwide. The portfolio includes dump trucks, backhoe loaders, and wheeled excavators used across Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

Within the Hydrema Group, Marianne Frank Mogensen, Purchasing Manager, is the central point of contact for all coating-related matters. In this role, she has been responsible for aligning strategies and specifications for more than 30 years, while keeping an eye on future internal requirements in industrial coatings. For Hydrema, selecting the right coating system is therefore far more than a purely technical decision. At both production sites, the coating process plays a key role in the manufacturing process.

“The right coating has a major impact on how well our vehicles withstand daily use, how they are perceived in the market, and how much value they retain over the long term. At the same time, the coating process must be reliably integrated into production because it has a substantial effect on lead times and the pace of production. For us, this is not a minor issue but part of our quality promise,” explains Marianne Frank Mogensen.

Growth Creates a Manufacturing Challenge

Driven by the high quality of its machines and steadily increasing demand, Hydrema has grown continuously in recent years. This growth increased the demands on production, especially at the Weimar site. There, manufacturing capacity increased significantly while the regulatory limits on VOC emissions remained unchanged. For the paint shop, this created considerable pressure to act: higher unit volumes had to be achieved within the existing emissions-permitting framework. In response to this challenge, the new solution was intended to further develop and reliably safeguard the surface finish and quality level, even as production continued to grow. At the same time, it was expected to help ease the VOC situation at the site. “The single-coat approach was therefore the logical step,” says Marianne Frank Mogensen.

Single-Coat System Secures the Process Flow

The company ultimately chose a single-coat solution with ALEXIT High Build Monolyer from Mankiewicz Coatings. Hydrema was already familiar with the coating manufacturer from other applications, and the company already had product and application experience. The defining factor was now to partner up and develop a solution that could be reliably transferred into production and would consistently meet Hydrema’s requirements for surface quality, process stability, and lead times. “With Mankiewicz, we quickly developed a shared understanding of our production – not only of the coating process itself, but also of the entire process around it. The switch to the one-coat system first took place in Weimar, where the pressure to act was highest. Within a short time, the product had been established in production with robust process reliability,” explains Marianne Frank Mogensen.

The changeover to High Build Monolyer quickly delivered measurable benefits for Hydrema: by moving from the two-coat system to the single-coat solution, the VOC footprint fell by 30 to 40 percent. At the same time, the new coating system improved corrosion protection and led to significant process improvements. The change was also clearly noticeable in the production flow: because components now pass through only one process step, Hydrema in Weimar achieves higher throughput on the same footprint, without any additional spray booths.

“We have become significantly faster and more efficient as a result of the changeover. The key factor is that the drying times fit our conveyor system exactly. The parts have to be sufficiently hardened and ready for handling within a fixed time window,” says Marianne Frank Mogensen. Just 2.5 hours after coating, the components are ready for assembly. Mankiewicz supported Hydrema in reliably meeting the required process times.

According to the purchasing manager, High Build Monolyer also provides the desired additional flexibility in color matching. In addition to Hydrema’s standard colors: yellow, black, and grey, customer-specific colors can also be implemented reliably. For this, Hydrema notifies Mankiewicz of the desired colors within the required lead time. The coating manufacturer develops the color in its in-house colorimetry lab and produces the coating in the desired configuration. The quality remains unchanged. “For the painters, this is a decisive advantage: the mixing ratio, viscosity, nozzles, pressure, and temperature all remain the same. They do not have to adjust to a new system; they always work with familiar parameters,” says Marianne Frank Mogensen. This consistency in the process increases efficiency while providing the flexibility required for customers who want machines in their corporate branding.

Color Consistency in Parallel Operation

Beyond the process advantages, the changeover also had to avoid any disruption to the production network with Støvring. While Weimar was already using High Build Monolyer, Støvring initially continued to use the previous coating system. It was therefore critical that Hydrema yellow appear identical across both sites – both visually and in measurements. “For us, it was clear: even if the two plants were temporarily working with different systems, every component had to fit together in the end. With around 50,000 part numbers, even a small deviation in the surface appearance would have been a major problem. The machine has to look as if it were made from a single piece,” says Marianne Frank Mogensen, describing the challenge.

For the specified Hydrema yellow in particular, color matching was carried out on the basis of a sample panel provided by Hydrema. Mankiewicz’s tighter Delta E tolerances played an important role. Compared with the previous tolerance window of 1.0, the color could be set much more precisely and reproduced with greater stability. For Hydrema, it was also essential that the yellow shade remain consistent under different lighting conditions.

Mankiewicz therefore tested the color extensively in its in-house Testing Center and documented the results in detailed test reports. “In the end, no difference in the yellow shade was visible – neither in direct comparison nor under critical lighting conditions. That gave us the confidence we needed for parallel operation,” says Marianne Frank Mogensen.

Proven in the Field: Corrosion Protection and Long-Term Appearance

For Hydrema, the changeover to High Build Monolyer was decisive not only for process and environmental reasons, but also with regard to maintaining the long-term quality of the machines. Compared with the previous coating system, the company achieved a higher corrosion protection category, C3 VH (ISO 12944); this is an important factor because Hydrema machines in jobsite use are continually exposed to stone chips, dirt, lubricants, and other stresses.

At the same time, it became clear that the improved environmental footprint did not come at the expense of surface quality. “Our machines leave the factory in top condition. And even though they have a hard life in operation, they should continue to look good for years,” emphasizes Marianne Frank Mogensen. The fact that Mankiewicz extensively tests and documents the systems in advance gives Hydrema additional confidence: unlike in the past, Hydrema no longer needs to conduct its own field tests after one or more years of use to verify surface appearance, color stability, or UV resistance.

This level of process stability is critical for Hydrema and is therefore also intended to apply to supplier-produced parts in the future. Because the machines are designed for long service life, low service costs, and high performance in operation, consistent coating quality across all components is especially important.

Successful Rollout to Støvring

As of early this year, the Støvring site has also fully switched to the single-coat system. Looking back, Marianne Frank Mogensen describes this step as comparatively straightforward, because Hydrema was able to draw on the experience from Weimar and transfer the process reliably. “In Weimar, we worked through every eventuality together with Mankiewicz. So, we knew the system would work in Støvring, too – and that is exactly how it turned out,” she says. Although Denmark does not have comparable VOC requirements, Hydrema, as a manufacturing company, still saw a clear responsibility to further reduce emissions at this site as well and to meet its own ESG requirements.

Marianne Frank Mogensen sums it up clearly: “Basically, the project can be summed up in few words: successful in every respect. We gained capacity, secured quality, and, above all, proved our commitment to the people who work with the product every day. Even experienced painters who have been with the company for decades support the changeover. One employee hugged me and said, ‘Marianne, it is so good and easy to use.’ That says it all. When employees stand behind it, we all win.”