Rodger Talbert

Regular readers will have noticed that we have been running excerpts from old issues of our magazine to celebrate our 80-year history as the leading magazine in the paint and coating industry.

The Powder Coating Institute (PCI) held its annual business meeting on May 17-18 in Marco Island, Florida. This meeting was very important to the members to review the state of the industry and trends for future business.

The French job shop EPI tackles projects that many other shops can't handle. Standard turnaround time is no more than two days.

Is business really improving? Is the economy picking up like the numbers suggest? The answer probably depends on where you live and what you do for a living. But there is no doubt that there is more business activity now than there was a year ago.

When a leading manufacturer of outdoor furniture found that it was not getting the quality of finishing it wanted from its powder coaters, and that it was growing, the company decided to built its own line.

When I think about what is new over the past 30 years, the answer that I come up with is that nothing is new and everything is new.

In the previous decade, technology fueled one of the most dynamic eras of growth the U.S. has ever seen.

I always focus on the best way to do the job, while my clients are often most concerned with cost.

Environmental regulation has impacted us in many different ways, and it is easy to regard it as a burden and an expense. Yet, when we consider the greater picture, there are many parts of this issue that have been very positive, not only for our health, but for our business.

An informative technical seminar allowed finishers to catch up on new technology and the most recent twists in older equipment.