Growth in Tough Times: It is Possible!
It's not often that everyone agrees on something, but I think most will agree that 2009 has been a tough time for everyone. But hard times can also bring opportunities. Phoenix Coaters is a prime example of this!
An expansion of their Beaver Dam, WI facility was announced this past summer and installation is currently underway of a 303,000 sq ft multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art, high volume, production E-coat with the ability to top coat either liquid or powder both commercial as well as CARC military coatings finishing system. According to Brian Wendorff, the expansion more than doubles are finishing capacity for Phoenix.
"Before deciding which way to proceed with our expansion," Wendorff notes, "we talked with our customers so that we could design a system that will meet their needs. We believe we are building a system that is second to none. Our computer system that was installed two years ago begins tracking jobs from the time they enter our facility. This offers phenomenal traceability so we know exactly where parts are in our production system. It also builds operator confidence. All of our painters act as inspectors to ensure quality." Phoenix customers include Navistar, Caterpillar, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Oshksoh and the military.
This new system, being built by Therma-Tron-X has unique features such as a part size window of 6 ft wide X 14.5 ft. long 8 ft. vertical and 3,500 lb. Weight capacity per trolley. The14-stage pretreatment system has an Alodine aluminum conversion coating which will eliminate the need to wash primer or manually conversion coat parts prior to hanging on the production lines.
Phoenix Coaters has facilities in Beaver Dam, Mayville and Berlin, WI. They are military-certified CARC specialist and offer finishing services in liquid, powder and electrocoat.
Mr. Wendorff states that their facilities are operating six and seven days a week. Work comes in primarily from the Midwest but they do work for others across the nation and even some foreign companies.
Yes, even in tough times there are success stories.
- Courtesy of The Finishing Touch Magazine.
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