Powder Coated Tough - Spring 2008 - (Page 42) CUSTOM COATERS CORNER According to Wright, Atotech utilizes the custom coater as a beta site or test facility for pre-commercialized technologies. John Kochilla, a second-generation member of the metal finishing industry for the past decade and worldwide Paint Support Technologies (PST) business manager for Atotech, says that the feeling is mutual. “Having a production facility that is eager to integrate new green technologies—[located] five miles from your worldwide R&D facility—is a dream come true,” Kochilla says. Atotech’s customers have been harnessing the performance, financial, and environmental benefits of biotechnology for more than a decade. “Last year the PST business unit grew 45 percent,” Kochilla says. “We currently supply PST products as a Tier 1 supplier to 11 of the top 16 automotive vehicle producers and nearly all of the motorcycle producers.” Kochilla says that the relationship with Carolinas Custom Clad began in 2002 when he held an R&D position for Atotech. “I made a call on CCC to support a sales effort of our new paint pretreatment technologies. As I have grown with Atotech,…the relationship…has continued to grow and evolve. For any partnership to be successful, both sides must mutually benefit from the relationship,” he says. “It would be nice to say that [we] outlined the exact way this relationship would work,” he continues, “however, this wasn’t practical. We both shared a vision and then we worked on specific chemical processing steps. We approached each stage in CCC individually. The result has been mutually beneficial, fulfilling the foundation of the working relationship.” Kochilla says the first thing he did was to demonstrate with Carolinas Custom Clad that the use of a low temperature, long life cleaner utilizing biotechnology is “superior to conventional cleaners, both in performance and total operating costs.” Second, he says they demonstrated that a phosphate replacement can produce a uniform conversion coating Coat it right the first time – everytime, with the NEW FirstPass ™ Power Gun, part of ITW Gema’s OptiFlex ™ Manual Powder Coating Series SM OptiFlex your powder coating muscles. To get your hands on FirstPass Power for your powder coating operation, contact your ITW Gema distributor or visit: www.itwgema.com /manual 42 Powder Coated Tough http://www.itwgema.com/manual http://www.itwgema.com/manual
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