Blog Layout
The Setup
James Laughlin • June 2, 2020
In starting the company I was very serious about the learning phase.
I’m a very technical minded person (pre-electrical engineering, data storage, virtual communication) and wanted to be absolutely sure I understood the dynamics of not only the product, but the process as well. Understanding I can’t know everything, I always want to. After a significant amount of time and investment traveling, training, visiting powder coaters as small as a wheels guy in Omaha to a fully automated facility in Denver that receives product from other countries, coats it, repacks and ships to the client. All I can say is “impressive”.
I knew there was space and a demand in the upper middle size category so I chose a 25 foot oven knowing the bulk of the coaters here have 15 feet and smaller. Those guys are good at what they do and I’m not focused on their customers. The big guys in town have either 60 foot ovens or automated lines. We’re not that big (yet) and can’t handle anything larger than about 24 feet currently. I’m very comfortable with the space we operate in.
Right now in the industry we’re seeing everyone just doing the sandblast, paint and cure process. Over the course of a (2) week long training sessions and an enormous amount of interaction, conversation, and researching best practices, we feel the best and most durable results include not only media blasting, but an iron phosphate/zirconium pretreat applied at 150 degrees, a bake off, then the coating and curing. It’ll take a little longer, it’ll cost a little more, but it’s our name and their product. We’re not going to be all things to all customers, but we will be the best for those who want it.
In ending, our cleaning/conversion coat process is handled with a 150 degree Reimers steam unit that has site injection of the chemical making it more effective on the substrate. We’ve invested in the newest top of the line powder coating gun by GEMA named the Optiflex Pro. We have a brand new paint booth that’s well lit with HEPA ventilation. We have a 25 foot high efficiency convection oven that’s digitally controlled ensuring optimum time and temp are applied to avoid errors. We have a QC process every step of the way.
I’ve been building this from concept to reality since late 2018. We’ve only been open for 3 months now and I feel very good about our focus, mission, strategy, and future business partners. I want to encourage everyone out there that has wanted to start a business to do it now. As these blogs continue I’ll talk about the learning opportunities I went through to get here. My first recommendation is to clearly identify what makes the product or service you represent the best.
America's Wall of Honor is a remarkable project! This incredible 55’ x 10’ Memorial Wall will contain nine “seals” forged from dozens of layers of Stainless Steel in an effort to honor those whose service and sacrifice has made our country “the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” Powder coating America's Wall of Honor is underway and needless to say it is a massive undertaking. We started with the center Presidential Seal section of the Wall. Many special considerations and unique solutions had to be developed and worked through to ensure a flawless finish. This is just the beginning of this part of the project, it is such a major undertaking that there will be many posts about its progress. See more here: A great video of this part of the process America's Wall of Honor Facebook Page More images of this part of the process
In my first blog post I thought it’d be good to start at the beginning but that could be a rather long endeavor. Therefore I decided to start with my “why”.
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11421 S. 146th Street., Omaha NE 68138
(402) 594-5411
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