Minimizing Challenges When Building a Powder Coating System

By Anne Goyer & Kevin Coursin

 Purchasing a powder coating system is no small feat. It’s a major investment for companies and many spend a great deal of time doing research, creating a specification, vetting vendors, developing an implementation plan, and so on.

Liken building a new powder line to building a home. When you think you’ve done everything correctly, and finalize your plans, you create a sense of excitement about your new system. More efficient processes, improvement in throughput, and the opportunity to operate a new line are great for management and employees alike. But it’s not a simple nor easy process. Read on to learn how you can make the process as stress-free as possible and what you should do when something goes awry.

Writing a Spec
It is critically important that you create a specification that accurately depicts your requirements. Let’s begin with the size of a new powder coating system (Figure 1). Size depends on the dimensions and quantities of the products to be coated. A production analysis is necessary to address both current and future requirements. Without an accurate and comprehensive production analysis, there is a risk of misallocating capital equipment funds and encountering issues with the system's expected production capacity.

When developing your spec, it is advisable to consult with both a pretreatment supplier and a powder supplier to determine the process requirements needed to ensure the powder coatings perform optimally. These requirements will dictate the type of pretreatment system and oven(s) you will need.

Most systems will be designed to accommodate the largest part you will be powder coating. This “profile window” can also be utilized for smaller parts included in the production plan. At this stage, some assumptions are necessary, such as identifying the largest part profile the system should accommodate (height, width, length, and weight). Additionally, considerations for how these parts will be presented to the system (vertically or horizontally), the number of color changes, reject rates, production hours per day, and the number of production days per year are required. Information about the existing plant area or whether a new building is involved must also be included.

Research
Once you have a specification fleshed out, you need to have someone who is very good at research to begin planning for a new powder coating line. Knowing where to find accurate information is critical because it all factors into your overall experience of building a new line. While there is a great deal of information online these days, you can’t really tell what’s accurate or how often the information is updated. Consider running a Dunn & Bradstreet report (DNB) on the companies that provide proposals, including checking on any lawsuits they’ve been involved in. You are making a large capital investment that you want to protect.

This may sound like a shameless plug, but one of the best places to do research is at PCI’s annual Powder Coating Week. It’s the largest gathering of powder coating specific suppliers and end users each year. Beyond visiting with top suppliers in the industry who can provide you with system quotes, it’s a terrific opportunity to network with others who have already gone through the process of putting in a new system. You can pick their brains and walk away with valuable information that can help you make good decisions. Your next chance to attend Powder Coating Week is April 14–16, 2025.

Budgeting
Once the factors noted above are determined and documented in a specification, it can be sent to various system houses and powder booth application equipment vendors for budgetary quotes. With this information, a proper budget can be developed and submitted to the owner or management of your company for fund approval. If approved, a final specification can be sent for detailed quotations.

Seeking & Comparing Proposals
After you’ve written your specifications and determined your budget, it’s time to reach out to vendors and request detailed proposals. Be very specific in providing a deadline to receive proposals. Be reasonable. Start a spreadsheet to compare the approaches and equipment proposed.

Connect with Referrals
Request at least five referrals that you can reach out to during your search process. While you likely won’t receive a referral that may have had an unpleasant experience, if you take the time to speak to the referrals you receive, you should get a good overview of what it is like to work with a company throughout the entire process. Ask them for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes the ugly does rear its head and you want those details to help avoid facing the same pitfalls.

Contracting
Contracting is one of the most important steps in the process. Contracts should serve to protect you and your vendors, and there should be no gray areas of uncertainty. Contracts should clearly detail the cost, the timeline, when you’ll receive progress reports, the equipment you’ll be receiving, consequences when the schedule falls behind, the process to make changes once the contract is signed, etc. It is highly recommended that your legal counsel reviews a contract prior to signing. You want to avoid any legal issues along the way as they quickly become very costly. A solid contract that you and your vendor(s) are comfortable with will assist in getting you the system you want, when you want it.

Another area to consider is payment terms. Since a new system can take a long time to manufacture and install, the payment terms should follow expenditures of the vendor. If you allow the progress payments to track expenditures, neither party will get behind the proverbial eight ball if something goes wrong.

Progress Reports
Ensure you receive progress reports as noted in your contract. Depending on the size of your system, months at the outset may be fine; perhaps require them every week beginning six months out from project completion. Get the reports in writing and save them. When you don’t receive them, it’s imperative you document the lack of reporting in writing back to the vendor, saving that communication as well. In other words, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING! If you see things falling behind in reports, ask the vendor to provide details on why things are not on schedule and what they plan to do to get it back on schedule. Of course, save that information as well.

Installation & Start Up
It’s a big day when the installation of your new system begins. Ensure you and your staff are ready and that everything you needed to do for the installation is in place. Your facility should be clean and clear of anything that would hamper the system installation. Installations can take from four to twelve weeks depending on the size of your system. Your vendors should provide you with all the installation details before anything arrives at your plant.

Once installed, it’s another big day when you start up the system. There should be a training period from your vendors on the operation of the system. Every staff member involved in running the system should be thoroughly trained to ensure they can operate and maintain the system after the vendor leaves. It is a good idea to have your maintenance people available to watch the installation and to shadow the start-up personnel to learn how to troubleshoot the system. There’s nothing better than hands-on experience before you are running production parts.

Up & Running
Once you are up and running, there will always be tweaks you’ll need to make. For example, you may need to modify your hanging arrangement or powder gun settings. It is best to continuously keep data on the operation of the equipment such as temperatures, spray pressures, chemical concentrations, gun settings, etc., so you can always compare if something changes. You may need to make adjustments in your equipment from summer to winter conditions. It might be a good idea to include a service call from your vendors in your contract for the evaluation of the equipment twelve months after start-up to get additional eyes on the system and ensure everything is running properly.

When Things Go Wrong
What do you do when things don’t go quite as well as you hoped? If you’ve followed the suggestions above, you should have everything documented and have records of communications with your vendors. We can’t stress the importance of this enough. Use your documentation to try and solve problems as they happen. Having a strong record of the process and any issues that have occurred should encourage vendors to work closely with you when something goes wrong. Sometimes, however, the fix isn’t easy. Remember that you are making a large investment in your powder coating operations and that your business can be severely impacted when there are significant delays with a new line. While this may be your last resort, you may need to involve your legal counsel to protect your investment and get results. No one wants to do this, but sometimes it’s necessary. Remember, this is your business and it’s important that everyone delivers as contracted.

Minimize Your Challenges!
In speaking with others who have gone through this process, some take years to do their research, write a spec, seek proposals, and move forward with the purchase of their line. You can't rush this process, and you must realize that throughout this journey, unexpected things can and likely will happen. The key is that when they do, you are well prepared and can quickly react to avoid delays when possible. You can’t predict a year like 2020 when supply chains were severely impacted, but it’s critical that you have plans in place so you can continue to run your business. Minimizing your challenges when building a new system will serve you well in the long run!

Anne Goyer is president of Goyer Management International and Kevin Coursin is executive director of the Powder Coating Institute.