Sep 02, 2025 Malben Engineering, e-coating, Luca Smargiasso
Malben Engineering - continuous improvement, safety and corrosion protection with state-of-the-art e-coating capability
“It is a privilege to work in the automotive industry, with its constant drive to improve! Safety is an important cornerstone, and corrosion protection is part of this. Our success is built around pre-empting customers’ requirements – and ensuring we are not a passenger in the process. A real partnership is defined by taking the lead and adding real value and innovation in one’s service offering - rather than just following,” says Luca Smargiasso, Operations Director of Tier 1 automotive component supplier, Malben Engineering.
When it comes to e-coating and powder coating - critical corrosion protection processes - Malben’s standards are already significantly higher than its OEM customers’ requirements. “Our state-of-the-art e-coating laboratory constantly analyses real-time data – and everything is managed via our design of experiments (DOE) methodology,” Smargiasso points out.
The coating of automotive components has evolved significantly since Malben launched in 1974. The company started an in-house plating plant in 1997, and in 2005, Malben set up its e-coating and powder coating line. “Over the last few years, we have enhanced our processes to improve our e-coating facility in line with our customers’ enhanced corrosion protection requirements. More and more vehicles are being exported to highly corrosive environments. For example, a vehicle going into the Northern Hemisphere is going to be operating in a very demanding, corrosive environment - given the weather and the salt spraying done on those roads in winter,” explains Smargiasso. Mirriam Ratlhogo, Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Plant Manager at Malben, explains that e-coating, electro-plating and powder coating resist chipping, scratching and corrosion.
A step-change in corrosion testing
Smargiasso says Malben has invested in extensive in-house testing processes to access real-time data. It enables us to analyse process improvement in short time frames, and implement these changes quickly – which is important in an evolving environment,” he adds. Although more complex testing – such as cyclic corrosion tests – are outsourced, Malben’s fully equipped e-coating laboratory can do wet analysis, assess coating thickness, e-coat solids and determine electro-magnetic field process compliance with C2, C3 1P85 WSS standards. The salt spray chamber facilitates accelerated corrosion testing through continuous fogging. Manual tests include scratch and rub tests to ensure paint is properly cured.
“Batch size sampling is essential due to the high volumes of components coated. During every 9hour shift, tests are conducted 5 times. By working to its own higher specifications and standards, Malben has ‘room to move’ and quickly implement any adjustments required,” Ratlhogo explains. Malben recently engaged with another supplier to advise on process improvements required to achieve OEM standards, says Quality Director, Werner Kapp: “They wanted to understand what we were doing differently, as we had passed the corrosion test with flying colours.
Further to this, during one of our scheduled cyclic corrosion tests last October, we requested a third-party laboratory to continue the testing for a further 5 weeks - despite having reached the stipulated 9 week cyclic corrosion test requirements. Head of Maintenance Quinten Ballot adds that attention to detail and careful monitoring sets the company apart and gives it a competitive edge: “On the e-coating side, everything is minutely monitored. What cannot be measured, cannot be managed. Even the burner in the curing oven has been upgraded. Now AI-enabled, it constantly learns from its environment - adjusting to ambient/seasonal temperature variances to optimise heating patterns and gas usage, without compromising on quality.
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