OATING, April 2012

COATER'S CORNER

Chris McKinnon Aegis Industrial Finishing

Multiply your capabilities­engage your suppliers to improve your business inside and out

Although it is a relatively new technology as far as coatings are concerned (the earliest European cave painting dates back 32,000 years), powder coating and the process

required to ensure repeatable qual­ity requires knowledge about a broad range of factors for success: equipment, chemistries, environ­mental factors, metals, and surface preparation to name a few. For those like me who are still relatively new to the industry-knowing where to go to get help is key to success.

I have been involved in powder coating for more than six years, and in that time there have been a handful of suppliers who have provided me with support that has benefit­ted my customers, my company, or both. There are four cases in particu­lar that I will address in this article:

(1) Integration into our business process

(2) Passion for uncompromising quality

(3) Selflessness in customer support

( 4) Appreciation of technical know l­edge and accessibility of quality verification testing

Integration. The first supplier I ever had the pleasure of working with taught me a valuable lesson early on-and it was by his example rather than explicit education-when you add value and become present to your customers, it gives them every reason to deal w.ith you and removes any desire to look elsewhere.

This rep developed his share of our business by providing timely answers to our technical problems, educating us on coating systems that were appropriate for our customers' needs, training our employees on proper coating technique, and constantly providing us w.ith the latest technical data. We found that we started pur­chasing the material he was selling not only because it was quality prod­uct, but also because he became an extension of the value we offered our customers. It got to the point where we would make joint sales calls to thoroughly uncover what it was the customer really needed and give them confidence in what we were offering. This supplier has since left our market, but I am etemally grate­ful for the lessons that he taught me in bringing value and service.

P assion. The second supplier taught us the lesson of having pas­sion for what you do and empower­ing your customers to improve their quality. As a supplier of chemical pretreatment, one would think the excitement factor peaks pretty early and plateaus from there. When we were setting up our tanks he took the time to ask questions about what we wanted to achieve and then gave us the options that best suited a multi-metal cleaning and pretreat­ment system.

This supplier provided us with a custom-made training manual and custom Aegis branded logs for keep­ing records of our tanks. He even flew to our plant to provide our employees with a PowerPoint pre­sentation on best practices. He piqued my interest in chemistry and the best practices to ensure we were producing consistent quality in our pretreatment line. Even though the majority of the work that we do is blasted, we nevertheless value the time spent w.ith him if for no other

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reason than his contagious enthusi­asm for the work that he does.

Selflessness. The third supplier demonstrated selfless support in sorting out the balancing of our oven. Although a relatively new con­struction (less than 2 years old), our 38 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft natural gas con­vection oven required balancing because we were finding greater than normal temperature variation between top and bottom. When cur­ing items such as steel building canopies or light poles, this could result in inconsistent heat, in turn leading to premature coating failure.

As a custom coating shop w.ith only one oven, it would have been detri­mental to say the least to stop pro­duction for a day to balance the oven properly. To do this, we would have to run a series of temperature pro­files the length of the oven at vary­ing heights by using our oven tem­perature recorder. With this data we would then adjust the dampers to get the airflow just right, and then run the tests again to confirm.

The supplier who services our oven was aware of the problem and took a quick look at the end of a workday. Realizing our dilemma, we picked a Saturday, and he came ready to work. Working w.ith us, this supplier spent the day w.ith us to adjust the airflow and profile the oven to bring it to ±10°F. He saved us a great deal of frustration because we were able to avoid cutting into the precious time that we had w.ith our oven for completing work. With the tempera­tilie range in our oven dialed in, we were confident in the process this supplier went through with us to ensure that we would deliver qual­ity to our customers.

Appreciation and accessibility. The fourth supplier brought value to

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our company by working closely with us to detennine an appropriate coat­ing system for our customer and lending us access to his company's laboratory test equipment. When a new customer wanted to bring a new offering to the market that required a coating system on steel equivalent to an architectural grade powder coating for aluminum, we again reached out for help.

The powder supplier (who was new to us at the time) met with us at our plant and reviewed our processes and equipment. Because a large part of the integrity of the aluminum archi­tectural coatings relies on the pre­treatment process (AAMA-2603, AAMA-2604, and AAMA-2605), we were in uncharted territory. After this initial review, our customer and the powder supplier agreed to move for­ward with running a battery of tests: three different coating systems, two different surface preparation meth­ods, a 4,000-hour salt spray test, a boil test, a crosshatch adhesion test, and a 1,000-hour acetic acid test.

On top of that, the powder supplier brought one of their technicians to our facility and did an audit of our plant and profiled our oven. (Thank­fully, the previously mentioned sup­plier had helped us fine-tune our .

oven, and we were fully confident in its capability). Through this process, we were able to improve our opera­tion and develop a more rigorous approach to quality assurance that in turn improved what we can offer to other customers. We also developed a better understanding of which coat­ing system performed best in light of the data borne out through testing.

Tap suppliers to improve business In each of these cases, the people I had the pleasure of dealing with brought the same things to a greater or lesser degree: technical expertise, passion for quality in their work, genuine relationship, and a win-win attitude. As a result, this has en­abled our company to better serve our customers and our employees.

The greatest lesson that I learned from all of them, and the challenge that I accept as a result, is to under­stand how I can do the same thing for my customers and have fun doing it. No matter your place in the supply chain, I encourage you all to do the same! PC

Editor's note

For further reading, see Powder Coat­ing magazine's Web site at [www.

POWDER COATING, April 2012 45

pcoating.com). Click on Article Index and search by subject category. To sub­mit a question, click on Problem Solv­ing, then scroll to Coater's Corner.

Chris McKinnon owns Aegis Industrial Finish­ing Ltd. with his father in Surrey, BC. As a third generation metal finisher (his grandfather started a plating company in 1948, and his father has worked in powder coating for more than 20 years), he is actively developing new markets for powder coating and provid­ing those who will listen a greater appre­ciation for powder coating. He has an MA in Business Leadership and holds his NACE CIP Level 1. His company is focused on providing powder coating and sandblasting to the local market and spe­cializes in process-driven quality. If you would like to contact Chris, he can be reached at [chris@aegisfinishing.com].

This column discusses problems encoun­tered by powder coaters during the daily operation of their powder coating lines. These are in-the-field experiences from coaters. Its intent is to provide practical information to line personnel who coat all day to help them improve in their work. If you would like to contribute to this col­umn, contact Peggy Koop, editor, at 651 I 287-5603, or e-mail [pkoop@cscpub.com].

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