Designers of consumer products constantly seek new approaches to improve their products' appearance and quality, while lowering cost. Low Temperature Arc Vapor Deposition™ (LTAVD™) systems have been used extensively in the kitchen and bath fixture industry to deposit decorative and colorfast finishes on diverse, low-cost materials, while providing a uniform look and the durability of more expensive materials.
Manufacturers in every field are keeping their processes private, if not secret. After all, most processes are in some ways proprietary, comprising a mix of methods, technologies and operations that ultimately affect a manufacturer's ability to compete successfully.
Converting from in-house post-painted metal to outsourced prepainted metal can save manufacturers cost, time and hassles. The National Coil Coating Association in Cleveland cites 10 reasons a manufacturer should consider using prepainted steel or aluminum.
A new generation of non-chromated primer combined with a non-chromated surface pretreatment is paving the way for the aerospace and other industries to begin shifting to total non-chromated systems.
The Electrocoat Association has appointed Karen McGlothlin to the position of executive director. McGlothlin has 12 years of finishing industry experience and more than 17 years of professional business management experience.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the Guide for Industrial Waste Management, which identifies best management practices for the full range of industrial wastes (excluding those regulated as hazardous).
Knowing about different decorating and coating technologies can make a better design engineer, one whose product dreams become reality. Ultraviolet (UV) curing technology has been around for over 30 years, but remains an unknown to many designers even though it is commonly used in a wide variety of industrial processes for curing adhesives, inks and coatings.
A combination of infrared and convection heat provides an excellent balance
of selectively heating a powder coating while maintaining the integrity of the
MDF board.
Quality and innovation are the tenets that drive Tote Cart Co., a shopping cart manufacturer based in Rockford, Ill. The 63-year-old company prides itself on its highly durable nickel-chrome plated product, and also offers a plastic cart as a lighter-weight alternative. But when the market started shifting toward electrocoated ("painted") shopping carts several years ago, Tote Cart had a problem: The company didn't have an e-coat system, and it had a limited amount of space in its facility to install new equipment.
It may not be as compelling as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, but it can be said that the coating thickness testing discipline is constantly changing, with one evolutionary line of products followed by another. The result? Diversity in the marketplace is constantly increasing, with survivors discovering a world full of application opportunities.
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