Faced with the inability to meet corrosion and salt spray testing requirements, they needed some answers quickly. Their customer, a large OEM, required 96 hours of ASTM B-117 salt spray protection on bare steel tubing. One of Hubbard-Hall’s corrosion experts, Larry Ensley, Technical Director, came on site to evaluate the situation. After analyzing their process and running some tests, Larry came up with a solution. By applying Metal Guard 510, a water displacing rust preventative, over Hubfos 150, an iron phosphate, over the bare steel tubing they were able to meet the required 96 hours of ASTM B-117 salt spray protection.

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Good news, powder coating fans! A major powder coating producer and JAC Motors of China have announced that they “have pioneered the first use of VOC-free powder technology for automotive body coatings.” This was proclaimed in a December 11, 2015, press release. This truly is good news as the consumption of powder coatings for automotive bodies has been spiraling downward ever since the barrage of assembly plant shutdowns associated with the Great Recession. Many powder coating experts had given up on the potential for new growth in this market due to the adoption of environmentally sound waterborne coating technologies and the advent of the “compact” finishing process which utilizes wet on wet liquid paint processes.

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If you’re a business owner or general manager, maybe your goals are more general in nature. You may find yourself saying, “This year I am going to work more on my business, instead of in my business.” In other words, you see the need to work more strategically than tactically to grow your business. Now I have never owned my own business but I have been around many small business owners, and from these experiences I might guess that this is far easier said than done. While we could find many aspects of successful entrepreneurship to discuss, I just want to hit on a couple of things that might be worth thinking about.

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Custom powder coaters face two primary alternatives when considering the sale of their business to third parties: the sale of 100 percent of their business to a strategic buyer or the sale of 60 to 80 percent of their business to a private equity firm. This decision can be complex. Thus, before beginning the process of selling, owners should gain in-depth knowledge of the value these business relationships can offer and whether a strategic purchaser or a financial partner is a better option.

First, know how each type of buyer operates and which one will enable your business to meet its objectives. Let’s examine the options:

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The goal in every production process is to keep it simple. To do this there is a need to break the process down to simple steps. Steps that are easily documented can be consistently repeated and are easy to teach.

When it comes to masking, however, the reality is far from that. “We aren’t sure how to mask them as Joe normally does those,” “I’m not sure how we did that batch last time,” “Didn’t we…?”

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When it comes to metal fabrication, L&W Engineering in Middlebury, Ind., is said to be one of the best in the business. With humble beginnings in 1975, L&W has experienced significant growth in the past 40 years, now building quality parts for a multitude of unique customers and earning annual sales in the $40 million range. The company is able to assist customers in every stage of the process—from research and development (R&D) to packaging and delivery.

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On the television show “Chopped,” accomplished chefs compete by preparing meals using a mystery basket of unorthodox and difficult-to-work-with ingredients. The chefs’ experience and ingenuity is needed to whip up recipes when they don’t have access to a full pantry of ordinary items. Today’s pretreatment chemists face the same kind of challenge. How do they develop effective pretreatment using only a basket of strange new ingredients? Like chefs, these chemists’ years of experience and ingenuity allow them to create the perfect recipe. So, pull up a chair and learn about three specific avenues of research in the chemical pretreatment kitchen.

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