By: Sharon Spielman
A focus on customers and its employees’ abilities to respond
to new opportunities has allowed this Indiana-based custom
powder coater to thrive. The addition of a fourth powder
coating line will allow them to continue to offer industry
leading quality and delivery levels.
With a company mission
of being dedicated to
providing customers
with products of the highest
quality and quickest turnaround
at the best value, it is no wonder
that Indiana-based Winona Powder
Coating decided it was time to add
another powder coating line to its
business. To what does Winona
attribute its success?
“We are successful because of
our employees’ abilities and how
we respond to new opportunities,”
says Brian Bailey, president
at Winona Powder Coating. “We
have changed our focus to say ‘yes’
to every opportunity with a fair
and valued price. By making the
customer the focus of our organization,
we have been able to continue our long tradition of industry
leading quality and delivery levels
while earning a reasonable profit.”
With end users such as Caterpillar,
Hubbell, John Deere and
Navistar, Winona does a high
volume of heavy industrial parts
and components between its two
locations—one in Elkhart, Ind.,
and its newest in Etna Green, Ind.,
(see sidebar about Winona’s history
on page 35). “We have grown the
business significantly in the past
several years with foundries, machine
shops and heavy equipment
manufacturers,” Bailey says.
So it is no surprise that the time
has come for Winona to install a
fourth powder line to its business.
“We currently have two lines in
our Elkhart facility and are adding a second line to our facility in Etna
Green. Moving to the new facility
in August 2013 allowed us to grow
our footprint from 50,000 sq.-ft. to
167,000 sq.-ft. We are currently in
the middle of the installation with
an anticipated line start-up in Q3
or Q4 of 2016,” Bailey explains.
The line is built around the
premise of doing greater volumes
of heavy industrial parts and components,
according to Bailey. “Having
the new line will also free up
capacity on Etna Green’s existing
line to do more aluminum extrusions
and components up to 23 ft.
in length.”
The additional large capacity
production line will feature
a heavy duty I-beam conveyor,
a five-stage wash system and an
automatic powder booth. Once
completed, the line will be able
to accommodate parts up to 200
pounds per trolley, with the ability
to handle extremely heavy components
across several trolleys.
“At Winona, we are always expanding our service offerings in
order to surpass customer needs,”
says Bailey. “This additional fourth
line allows us to deal with the
challenges of castings and heavy
parts throughout the coating,
curing and packing processes. We
will also be able to reduce lead
times and offer quicker customer
response.”
Winona can coat steel parts,
gray iron castings, aluminum castings
and aluminum extrusions, as
well as many other surfaces.
How Do They Do It?
Due to the size and capabilities
of its facilities, Winona possesses
great operational efficiency, which
they can pass on to its customers.
They are capable of applying
diverse materials, such as, epoxy,
polyester, hybrids, vinyl, nylon,
and plastisol. The custom coater
stocks more than 50 different powders
and can color match to meet
specific color and environmental
requirements. Winona started out
as a fabricator in 1974 and transitioned
to custom coating by 1979.
When asked, “Why powder?” Bailey
said that the durability of the
coating, combined with Winona’s
quality and service created a great
business opportunity in the 1970s.
“Eighty percent of our powder
purchases are concentrated with
Axalta, TCI, PPG and American
Powder. Axalta provides key
technical resources, and PPG was
instrumental in Winona obtaining
John Deere’s JDM F17 certifications
for steel, aluminum and
castings,” Bailey explains.
Each of Winona’s automated
lines has five-stage wash systems
and auto-booths. Bailey says that
the existing washer in Etna Green
will soon transition from iron
phosphate to zirconium. “We
have a strategic relationship with
our chemical supplier Americo
and value them as a true business
partner.”
He adds, “Our auto-booths are
manufactured by Nordson and
Gema. We added a state-of-theart
Gema cylindrical booth to the
Elkhart facility in December 2014
that has tremendously improved
our labor efficiency.”
The heavy duty batch line will
accommodate part profiles of 30'
x 8' x 8'. It can facilitate extremely
heavy parts with the use of the
I-beam conveyor or with carts.
Bailey says they also offer small
batch coating capabilities at each
facility.
When it comes to masking,
Winona is able to do all kinds. “We
have one part from a large agricultural
manufacturer that utilizes
greater than 10 masks. We lean on
EPSI and Echo for our masking
needs.”
Winona also offers a range of
other services. Both locations offer
wheelabrating services. “A ‘white
metal’ surface is great for accepting
many paint types and promotes durability
and strength in your final
product.” The Etna Green plant
offers abrasive blasting services
for smoothing and cleaning a hard
surface by forcing abrasive materials
such as black oxide across it at
high speeds. Also, fluid bed dipping
is an option at Winona. This
is a possible solution to coating
difficult parts. It offers a heavy,
uniform coating. The process is
ideal for parts that need to be coated
in tight corners and traditionally
tough areas to get coating. Laser
scale removal is also available.
Winona also offers other ancillary
services. In addition to cleaning
and coating, they also provide
assembly operations as well as
drilling, tapping, and packaging
services. “We can also provide
warehousing services and value
added distribution.”
What's Next?
Bailey says their goal is to double
the powder business from 2013
to 2018. “We will do this with the
addition of new customers and
valued certifications (JDM F17 and
UL). We are anticipating an AAMA
2604 certification in Q3 of 2016.”
He continues, “We are also
forming strategic partnerships with
fabricators and retail customers to
provide end-use solutions to consumers that will begin to take hold
in the second half of 2016. We also
have our own in-house pick-up
and delivery service with drivers,
trucks and trailers situated at each
facility. We offer a drop-trailer
program to high volume customers
or to those with limited floor space
situations in their own facilities.
We are one of a limited few custom
coaters that have the UL certification.”
It looks like the second half of
2016 is just the beginning of continued
success for Winona.
Sharon Spielman is editor of Powder
Coated Tough magazine. She can be
reached at 847-302-2648 or via email
at sspielman@powdercoating.org.