Powder Coated Tough - Fall/Winter 2007 - (Page 41) CUSTOM COATERS CORNER IED TIF FOR for Quality Control EDITED BY SHARON SPIELMAN Just as a castle is built to withstand enemy attacks, PSB uses powder coating to ensure its castles and other custom jobs can withstand the attack of corrosion. B illy Ingram was a pioneer. Father of the “Slyder” hamburger, he cofounded White Castle hamburgers in 1921. Ingram was first to do a lot of things: first fast-food hamburger chain, first industrial strength spatula, first mass-produced paper hat. And he was the first to sell a million, make that a billion, burgers. Ingram also was very focused on quality. To ensure success, that meant everything from the quality of the meat, buns and fries, to his restaurant furniture—and even the buildings themselves. So, Ingram formed subsidiaries to supply his burger chain (of almost 400 restaurants today) with nearly everything they needed. Besides meat processing plants, potato farms and paper mills, he established Porcelain Steel Buildings (PSB) in 1934 to manufacture the castle-shaped edifices that became symbolic of his chain. And while store fixtures and restaurant machinery were built by another White Castle subsidiary—all of it is powder coated by PSB. Just as a castle is built to withstand enemy attacks, PSB uses powder coating to ensure its castles A centralized feed station provides for rapid changeover from one box of and other custom powder to the next, while the automatic pulsing sequence cleans the jobs can withpowder sieve and feed system with little operator effort. stand the attack of corrosion. Pioneer that he was, Ingram knew vertical integration ensured the highest quality and efficiency, long before “quality control” became the buzz throughout the world of manufacturing. Serving Custom Services, Too Today, PSB provides powder-coated fixtures to the White Castle hamburger chain that owns it. The company also provides custom powder coating services for other businesses within hundreds of miles of the Columbus, Ohio, White Castle headquarters. Columbus is also the flagship powder facility of PSB, which operates two other facilities located in Dayton, Ohio, and Rome, Ga. But the company’s growth as a successful custom coater created a new set of problems as the demand grew for more parts, more styles and more colors. Because Columbus isn’t known as the lowest priced labor market, automation and efficiency are valued components of the PSB business equation. The company’s dual roll-on, roll-off booths, installed originally in 1976 and www.powdercoating.org 41 http://www.powdercoating.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.