marketing
Coating Plated Zinc Jewelry
What is the best way to apply a clear hard coat for durability on plated pieces of zinc jewelry?
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Back from the Brink of Finishing Death
Alpha Metal Finishing is celebrating its 36th anniversary and, after battling the ups and downs of sales, coupled with tumultuous management practices and the untimely illness of company founder Bob Wood that almost forced the its extinction, the company is recording unprecedented growth.
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Plating Bath Parameters Affecting the Performance of Zinc-Nickel Alloys for Post-Plate Fabrication
In recent years, the demand for increased corrosion protection of ferrous substrates has significantly increased. Zinc-nickel alloy plating systems are being chosen to meet this need. Often these component parts are subjected to post-plate forming and fabrication processes. Ductility, hardness, and stress were thought to be important physical properties to maintain the integrity of the zinc-nickel deposit during these forming processes. To achieve these goals, the following operating parameters were found to be important: the donor type and denticity of the chelate, the chelate-to-total metal mole ratio and the secondary brightener concentration.
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Caterpillar Is Back on the Coatings Prowl
Caterpillar has been developing and applying advanced wear coatings to extend the service life and performance of its machine components, whether new or remanufactured, for decades. Now Caterpillar’s advanced wear coatings are available to others through Cat Remanufacturing, including turnkey coating and finishing.
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Quarterbacks, Power Forwards, Olympians and Benchmarking
What if there was a way to determine how we are performing financially compared with companies similar to our own? What if we could compare our results with theirs on an even playing field? What if we could determine where others are outperforming us and then take steps to improve in those areas?
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A Conversation With ... Steve Smith
The SUR/FIN shows in Chicago and Las Vegas the past two years have received good reviews from attendees and exhibitors. The man who led the NASF committee organizing SUR/FIN was Steve Smith, the vice president of sales and marketing for Process Technology, which designs and manufactures process heating and cooling equipment for the plating industry.
Read MoreAcquisitions Abound in the Finishing Industry
End-markets are growing, raw material costs are declining, and more than the usual number of mergers and acquisitions took place, possibly signaling a resurgence of the U.S. coating industry. The Carlyle Group won a bidding war to take over DuPont Performance Coatings; Innotek Powder Coatings was purchased by Protech/Oxyplast; United Capital Funding Corp. purchased Architectural Finish Systems; and Pioneer Metal Finishing of Green Bay, Wis., bought Superior Metal Finishing of Portland, Ore., to go along with plants in Wisconsin, Oregon, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina and Indiana.
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Steamed Over Heating Costs? Try Gas For Your Finishing Shop
The cost of natural gas in the U.S. is at record lows—about where the rates were in the mid-1970s—causing many in the plating industry who need to heat tanks to search for alternative avenues to curtail their rising energy costs.
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The Call of Heavy Duty Coatings
PPG renews its commitment to heavy-duty equipment coatings with Caterpillar as it is selected the company’s industrial coatings business as the sole heavy-duty equipment coatings supplier for a new motor grader assembly plant in North Little Rock, Ark.
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A Perfect Case For Removing Sludge From Pretreatment
Chemical change ends sludge buildup for CNH coating line in plant in Fargo, N.D. as the company re-engineered their paint line’s pretreatment system to improve its performance and reduce costs, a process that took nearly two years and numerous trials before they were able to find just the right fit.
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