The Environmentally Responsible Choice
Powder Coating Alternative Substrates: Time to Execute
You’ve explored the possibilities of growing your business with IFS PureClad powder coatings for alternative substrates. You’re convinced that the upside potential is enormous, in a field-of-play with low competitive intensity which is roughly ten times the size of the market for powder coating metal substrates. You’ve taken a careful look at the state of materials, application and cure technologies, and can see that powder coating substrates like engineered woods (MDF, HDF, etc.), hardwoods, fiberglass and other composites is now a robust finishing solution. You’ve been inspired by the case studies of early adopters in Europe who have established solid, profitable and growing businesses in just a few years’ time. You’ve done the math, analyzed the potential, and assessed the risks.
The Decision
The only thing left is a decision to execute; and if you’re like most people, that decision can be difficult to make. What if you make this investment then don’t deliver? What if you can’t garner enough business to cover your costs? It seems that “what ifs” are never in short supply.
The fact is, as with any business decision, investing in the infrastructure you’ll need to succeed in building a business around powder coating alternative substrates entails uncertainty. Fully acknowledging that reality, allow me to propose another “what if” to include in your decision-making process: What if you could de-risk, or substantially reduce the uncertainties associated with the decision to execute?
Navigating Uncertainty
Avoiding catastrophic risk is an essential component of effective leadership. Acknowledging this reality, IFS Coatings and our allies on the equipment side of things have given a lot of thought to how a company can join us in the work and reward of advancing the use of powder coating beyond metal… without compromising our duty to avoid catastrophic risk.
Investment
Investment. What do you need to powder coat wood? The list is actually pretty short. As with any powder coating operation, among the items that can come with a bigger price tag, you’ll need an air compressor, an electrostatic spray gun unit, a recovery booth, and an Infrared (IR) oven to start a small batch operation. With that for context, let’s explore how to pull the trigger without leveraging the family farm.
Only buy the equipment you need. Let’s imagine, for example, you anticipate that your business will start with something like powder coating cabinet doors for local cabinet makers (Google “cabinet makers near me”… there are thousands throughout the US), coating a few dozen doors per week. Keeping to the big ticket items, one person, one gun, an air compressor and an oven, and you’re good to start with an operation that can handle that.
Allow me to inject a couple of provisos here… A consideration that shouldn’t be overlooked… oven and booth size. When you consider that some early adopters started with cabinet fronts, but then evolved to coat larger pieces such as ready-to- assemble (RTA) furniture, or even residential doors. With that for context, it may make sense to start with an oven and booth that are large enough to accommodate the potential for evolving your business to accommodate larger parts. For reference, the largest pieces I’ve seen coated (so far) are 4x8 plywood sheets. It really comes down to that assessment you did to get a handle on potential business for your operation (I’m betting you found someone manufacturing residential doors in need of a finishing solution – so keep that in mind).
Only buy equipment that will grow with your business. Time goes by and you’ve established relationships and steady work from a number of local shops. At some point, you connect with a larger manufacturer of children’s furniture who is interested in having you apply powder primer to their products (because doing so will reduce the number of liquid paint layers needed – most often, to a single layer). To get started, the manufacturer is prepared to send you enough work to more than triple your business (and that’s just the beginning!).
Time to invest again. To handle the additional volume, you’ll need to transition to an automated line. That means a conveyor system, automatic electrostatic spray guns and controls, a recovery system that allows you to reclaim and reuse the over-sprayed powder (which by the way, will soon pay for itself with savings through improved material utilization), as well as additional oven capacity.
Fortunately, the PureClad team of allied suppliers considered this scenario from the beginning. In this case, de-risking your decision to get into powder coating alternative substrates began with buying equipment that would grow with your business. As a consequence of that smart decision (good on you!), scaling up doesn’t mean de-commissioning assets that would eventually become unsuitable for your needs. That batch oven you started with? It just became your pre-heat oven. That first gun and controller? We’ve positioned it right behind your new automated spray booth, so that your small batch business can continue without interruption.
In fact, everything you started with is now fully integrated into your high capacity operation.
Promotion: How will I get business?
IFS Coatings, together with our team of allied suppliers, understands that we cannot succeed without you. No matter what scale of business you begin with, IFS Coatings and the PureClad team are committed to helping you to get the word out. With the visibility that will come with being a PureClad coater, you’ll benefit from our work to create “Pull” in the market through our investments in marketing, participation in trade associations that cater to the woodworking industry and focus on promoting the benefits of PureClad to your future customers. This is where the rubber hits the road in terms of commitment. If you’ll join us to advance powder coating beyond metal, we’ll commit to doing our best to win together.
Success with Powder Coating: A road well-traveled.
Beginning in earnest in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, when powder coating was just beyond its infancy, a handful of contract coaters did the math, invested in a few coating lines, and quietly started a revolution. Eventually, the growth of powder coating reached the critical mass necessary to become a self-sustaining force that the wait-and-see crowd had to struggle to catch up to. For roughly the next 3 decades, it seemed that all you had to do to grow at a double-digit pace was to be somehow involved in the powder coating value chain (ah the memories… those were good days).
Stronger, Safer, Better
Brass tacks… The prospects for powder coating alternative substrates are at this stage in many ways a mirror image of those early days of powder coating metal.
The confluence of the advancements in materials, application and cure technologies, which together have transformed powder coating alternative substrates from an “iffy” proposition to a robust process, has literally just happened in the past few years. The value proposition of powder versus incumbent technologies (like liquid paint, thermofoil, laminates), together with increased awareness about the impact of these finishes on people and the environment, is essentially the same powerful value proposition that will fuel the growth of powder in alternative substrates.
To the point… Powder coating will grow beyond metal for the same reasons that it grew so rapidly in metal. Powder coating delivers higher performance finishes, which are safer for people and the environment, that deliver unparalleled applied cost and productivity advantages.
IFS PureClad - Stronger, Safer, Better finishing wins, period.
Time to Execute
How soon can we reasonably expect the use of powder coatings on non-metal substrates to happen in a big way? If the history of powder coating is any indication, the answer to that question is… as soon as we make it happen.
IFS Coatings, together with our equipment allies, have made the substantial investments that were necessary to make powder coating alternative substrates a robust finishing solution. We call it PureClad. If you’re ready to explore possibilities, we should talk. Drop us an email at pureclad@ifscoatings.com to begin the conversation about working and winning together