Bales Offers Virtual Consultation, Coatings Comparison

Bales Metal Surface Solutions, a coating and finishing service provider based in Downers Grove, Ill., has expanded its resources to include the online Coatings Comparison Tool, as well as a virtual consultation service, the Mold Doctor. The two services previously entailed physical shop visits and material resources, but Bales recently adapted them to the online format to give users easier access.

Bales’ Coatings Comparison Tool has existed in a few iterations over the years; it first appeared as a flyer that the company would hand out for people to hang and reference in their shops. Now online, the Coatings Comparison Tool is designed to be more user-friendly and immediate. It enables users to choose between coatings to compare, displaying them side-by-side while listing properties such as Rockwell hardness, coefficient or friction, applied temperature, corrosion and abrasion resistance and more. “We wanted the design to be more interactive,” Sara Mortensen, Bales’ vice president, says. Users can now select the “properties, coatings or pain points that they want to see side-by-side so they can compare themselves.”

In addition to rolling out the Coatings Comparison Tool, Bales has also taken its consultation service online with the Mold Doctor.

The Mold Doctor service is designed to help shops troubleshoot specific process issues they experience, whether it be parts sticking, quality issues on the finish and so on.

Prior to going virtual with the service, Rich Wozniak, Bales’ technical services manager and the Mold Doctor himself, would visit shops across the country to get a closer look at the problems that they were experiencing. Now that it’s online, users can easily schedule a time to consult and communicate directly with Wozniak via video conference, enabling him to get eyes on the problem without dealing with travel time and associated costs. He says, “Downtime is money to these people, and if we can help solve a problem within a half an hour or give them some guidance, that’s key.”

Mortensen says taking the service online gave Bales the flexibility to be “more reactive to support people and help check their problems.” To Wozniak, this immediacy is what sets the Mold Doctor service apart from traditional consultation services. “With my mold making and production management background, I’ve been on all sides of the fence,” Wozniak says, concluding, “I like helping people and solving problems.”