Paint Process Engineer

Paint Process Engineer. at KI Industries Inc.

About KI Industries Inc.

KI Industries, founded in 1964, specializes in the design and manufacturing of decorative plastic and casting components for the automotive and home appliances industries. Our focus on aesthetics and technical expertise creates components that will provide high-quality interface experiences to their end-users. Those elements make KI a reliable leader in the decorative parts industry.

To learn more, visit our website at www.kiindustries.com or call +52 (442) 139 0879

About the position.

As Paint Process Engineer in KI Industries Inc., you will be responsible for applying water-based and solvent-based paint on plastic parts with engineering materials, ensuring quality standards, efficiency, and regulatory compliance in a high-precision manufacturing environment, achieving expert-level skills in identifying contaminants in the painting process, providing continuous flow of data to define statistically the root causes of problems and communicating effectively to the organization about the causes of the problems found and defining corrective actions to be executed.

This position offers a unique opportunity for professional growth and development within KI.

Responsibilities

• Manage the optimal operation of painting booths, including air balancing and environmental parameter control (temperature, humidity, differential pressure)
• Monitor and adjust filtration systems to ensure controlled environments
• Implement cleaning and preventive maintenance protocols for booths according to clean room standards
• Supervise the formulation and preparation of water-based and solvent-based paints according to technical specifications and customer requirements
• Calculate precise proportions of chemical components for paint mixtures
• Control and adjust viscosity, density, and rheological properties of materials
• Expertly manage 2K and ProMixh systems for automated component mixing
• Configure and optimize application parameters (pressure, flow rate, distance, speed)
• Program and calibrate automated dosing and application systems
• Establish curing cycles according to material requirements
• Implement statistical process control (SPC) for critical variables
• Program and optimize Fanuc axial and reciprocating robots for paint application
• Develop robot trajectories that maximize efficiency and minimize waste
• Configure and adjust atomization, electrostatic charge, and application speed parameters
• Maintain preventive maintenance and diagnose failures in robotic systems
• Develop and update operation standards for all painting processes
• Analyze and implement continuous improvements to increase efficiency and quality
• Execute capacity process studies (Cp, Cpk) and analysis of repeatability and reproducibility (R&R)
• Orient consumption of materials and reduce environmental impact
• Analyze root causes of defects (dirt in paint, cracks, delamination, etc.)
• Implement problem-solving methodologies (8D, DMAIC, A3)
• Execute adhesion tests, chemical resistance, impact, and aging tests
• Verify compliance with color, brightness, and texture standards using measurement equipment
• E nsure compliance with IATF 16949 and CQI-12 (Coating Quality System) regulations
• Maintain detailed records of process parameters and material tracing
• Participate in internal and external audits related to painting processes
• Implement corrective and preventive actions derived from audits and quality analysis

Experience

Minimum 5 years in a similar position.

Competencies and technical knowledge:

• Knowledge of chemical properties of water-based and solvent-based paints for engineering materials
• Principles of colorimetry and paint formulation
• Physical-chemical properties of plastic materials and their interaction with coatings
• Painting technologies (HVLP,)
• Syste