FABTECH 2017 is now in the books. This immense exposition was held for four days at McCormick Place in Chicago. This show is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event, and hosted more than 1,700 exhibiting companies and a total of 44,935 attendees from 120 countries. This year’s theme was a celebration of manufacturing’s industrial evolution. With more than 750,000 sq.-ft. of exhibit space, FABTECH provided attendees with access to the fabrication industry’s leading companies, latest innovations and insight into current and future trends.

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CCAI’s FINISHING Pavilion Set as FABTECH Returns to Chicago

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Harnessing the interactive capability of our mobile devices, there are several applications (apps) that bring the powder coating world closer together and allow access to information for new projects as well as to solve problems with old ones.

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The finishing needs of the defense market continue to advance and change. This includes the evolution of powder coatings, which must address the following requirements:

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Just like Indiana is the hub for several major Interstate highways to crisscross, so, too, was the CC Forum a place for custom coaters to cross paths and learn from one another, taking with them valuable knowledge on their own highways to success. This year’s Custom Coater Forum was held March 30-31 in downtown Indianapolis. The opening evening began with a dinner at a local famous family-style restaurant, where PCI custom coater members enjoyed a great night of networking, good food, and the keynote speaker for the event.

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It was roughly five years ago when JR Custom Metal Products (JRCMP) Inc. in Wichita, Kan., had been outsourcing so many parts for finishing that the company decided it made sense to put together a finishing system of its own. According to Jorge Martinez, vice president of sales and marketing at JRCMP, “Once we made the decision to build a powder coating finishing line, we wanted to do it right.” So, they started to attend industry events such as the Powder Coating Show (now called the Powder Coating Technical Conference and Tabletop Exhibition), PCI Hands-On Workshops and FABTECH. “We needed to learn a lot,” says Martinez. “We took everything to heart. We listened to all the speakers at all the events we attended. We learned about grounding, transfer efficiencies and line density. We learned about everything in general that we could about powder coating, and from there we figured out what kind of budget we would need to put in a new, ultimate system.”

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Since its founding in 1948, American Trim (known then as Lima Tool and Die) has achieved success by adding value to the parts it supplies to the appliance industry. The company’s first customer, a kitchen range manufacturer, fell in love with the stylish, chrome-plated handle that company owner Henry Hawk designed. With the help of the Tennessee Stove Works, Hawk expanded his company’s reach into the appliance industry by developing the capability to manufacture and then plate appliance parts using an efficient, continuous, process.

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From March 27-31, The Powder Coating Institute (PCI) hosted three events at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis, making the end of March a hat trick for the powder coating industry. PCI devoted an entire week to powder coating education, hands-on training, tabletop exhibits and networking opportunities, through three of its events: a Powder Coating 101 Workshop, the Powder Coating 2017 Technical Conference & Tabletop Exhibition, and the Custom Coater Forum.

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Purchasing a new powder coating line can cost from tens of thousands to millions of dollars. Making a mistake and buying a line that will not work properly can cost even more in rework, product returns and lost business. The design of a powder coating line can directly affect the quality, production efficiency, reliability and overall profitability of an entire powder coating operation. However, while nearly everyone agrees that it is not a decision to be made casually, few manufacturers have a clear roadmap to help them make a sound decision when it comes to choosing a good system supplier.

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When the Flory family built a barn in Salida, Calif., in 1909, to raise dairy cows, one might wonder if anybody knew that more than a century later the same family would be running a successful metal fabrication and OEM farm equipment business from the very same location. Read on for the Flory story.

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