Frost Automation Company Profile
Frost Automation is a specialized industrial automation, robotics, and full-service systems integration firm based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2001, the company was established to fill a specific engineering gap within the industrial coatings and manufacturing sectors: the need for end-to-end integration of fragmented process equipment into unified, automated production systems.
Frost Automation primarily serves automotive Tier-1 suppliers, aerospace manufacturers, and heavy industrial clients across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company provides complete turnkey solutions spanning mechanical design, hazardous-location electrical engineering, custom industrial software development, and material handling automation.
Continue…Core Expertise: Coatings System Integration
The primary operational focus of Frost Automation is the development of automated, robotic fluid application and coating lines. Rather than manufacturing individual pieces of spray equipment, the firm acts as the overarching systems integrator—specifying, programming, and physically assembling complex coating cells. This includes handling applications for liquid paint, powder coating, glues, sealants, sound deadeners, and fiberglass structures.
Mechanical Design and Installation Services
Frost Automation engineers complete mechanical layouts for greenfield (new facility) projects as well as modifications for existing plants.
* Process Equipment Selection: Engineering and sizing fluid delivery pipelines, stainless steel recirculation systems, paint kitchen pumping apparatuses, and chemical mixing units.
* Applicator and Robot Selection: Determining optimal kinematic configurations utilizing robotic arms specifically rated for paint applications.
* On-Site Installation and Fabrication: Managing physical deployment, structural framing of cells, line leveling, and utility connections.
Hazardous-Location Electrical Design
Industrial coating environments frequently present explosive or highly flammable atmospheres due to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and airborne particles. Frost Automation provides specialized electrical engineering designed to comply with strict Class I, Division I (and Division II) hazardous location regulatory standards.
* Explosion-Proof Control Panels: Designing purged and pressurized enclosures (Type X, Y, and Z purging systems) to isolate electrical currents from flammable vapors.
* Intrinsically Safe Circuitry: Implementing barriers and wiring protocols that limit electrical and thermal energy to levels below what could ignite specific hazardous atmospheric mixtures.
* Field Wiring and Safety Interlocks: Engineering total plant safety footprints, including light curtains, gate interlocks, and emergency stop networks integrated with ventilation controls.
Software Design and Automation Controls
The operation of an automated paint or coating line depends directly on custom-engineered control software. Frost Automation designs and deploys software architectures for programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. The firm builds control setups using platforms such as Allen Bradley/Rockwell Automation, Omron, and other open industrial protocols.
Key software features developed by the firm include:
* Automated Line Scheduling and Recipe Management: Synchronizing conveyor speeds and spray parameters based on part geometry and coating specifications.
* Vision System Integration: Incorporating industrial cameras and sensors to automatically identify incoming part styles on a mixed assembly line, allowing robots to dynamically shift execution paths.
* Closed-Loop Fluid Controls: Deploying PLC-driven algorithms to manage precise flow rates, atomizing air pressures, and fan patterns for 1K, 2K, and 3K (single, two, and three-component) fluid applications.
* Environmental and Operational Reporting: Developing totalization modules for fluid usage tracking, downtime reporting, process trend archiving, and regulatory-mandated Ministry of the Environment (MOE) solvent usage and emissions reporting.
* Quality Defense Data Archival: Logging mix ratios, chemical cure times, and bake temperatures inside industrial ovens to provide verifiable manufacturing histories for warranty defense.
Material Handling Solutions
In addition to its fluid application services, Frost Automation designs robotics cells focused on automated material handling and machine tending to streamline parts movement before and after the coating process.
- Mold Tending and Demolding: Deploying robots equipped with custom end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) to extract hot plastic components directly from injection molding machines.
- Pick-and-Place Systems: Automating high-speed sorting and transfer steps along primary manufacturing lines.
- Conveyor Interface Engineering: Designing infeed and outfeed conveyance configurations, part orientation stations, and automatic turning mechanics.
- Palletization Systems: Creating end-of-line robotic cells that stack, wrap, and catalog finished industrial components for shipping.
Lifecycle Services and Technical Support
Because production downtime in automotive and industrial sectors can result in massive financial losses, Frost Automation provides extensive ongoing support services for established manufacturing facilities:
Retrofit and Upgrade Operations
A significant portion of the company’s business involves transforming older, manual coating booths into automated, robotic cells. This includes replacing mechanical pneumatic valves with digital fieldbus networks, upgrading obsolete PLC processors, and executing robot pathwork re-programming to accommodate newly introduced product lines.
Technical Support Infrastructure
- 24/7 Emergency Troubleshooting: Providing on-call, on-site field support for critical system failures.
- Remote VPN Diagnostics: Utilizing secure virtual private networks to access client PLC and SCADA layers off-site, allowing engineers to diagnose software glitches, recalibrate fluid parameters, and clear system faults remotely.
Strategic Integration Ecosystem
Frost Automation operates as an authorized dealer and certified system integrator for leading international robotics and fluid application brands, allowing them to construct non-proprietary, open-architecture systems:
- Robotics Platforms: Deploys hardware solutions from industry-standard manufacturers including Fanuc, ABB Robotics, and Motoman.
- Fluid Delivery and Atomization Equipment: Integrates professional application components manufactured by Sames Kremlin, Ransburg, and Graco.
