THE BUSINESS OF VISCOSITY BLOG

So much of our online content, (blogs, articles, videos, etc.), is geared around productivity improvements, quality defects and other “cost” related elements of manufacturing. All good stuff, but maybe a little blind to the essential goal of growing your business. Whether it’s expanding business with your current customers or acquiring new customers, much of what we talk about can help.

If your company sprays paint, you already know that this is likely the most expensive operation in your plant. 

Before I get into how much your material may change during your dispense process, let me provide a quick summary of why it matters. As your plant temperature changes, your material temperature often changes. When material temperature changes, the viscosity changes. When viscosity changes, the end result of your dispense changes – and nothing good happens when your finished product varies. It causes rework, scrap, customer rejects and in some cases, early product failure. In this blog, we’re going to address the effects of material temperature only. There may be other factors affecting your material but they’re not going to be addressed here.

At an event recently, we struck up a conversation with an Account Manager at one of the major paint suppliers. During our conversation we discussed the batch-to-batch variation of the paints they supply. He said what we often hear from paint suppliers, “Our paints don’t vary much from batch to batch.” When we asked why their customers often have a different perception he said, “Most of the variations that they see are self-inflicted.” That prompted us to request a more in-depth conversation so we could better understand how end users may be unknowingly creating their own batch variations. We thought his insights were helpful, so we decided to share a summary of them here.

As the cost of virgin materials continues to increase, packaging recovery has never been as important as it is today. But recovery is also vital from a sustainability and environmental standpoint as well because more and more end consumers are looking for eco-friendly packaging that’s made from recycled materials, that is itself recyclable. For any packaging company looking to cut costs and improve sustainability practices, here are five ways you can improve packaging recovery rates.

We know how much the finishing industry is influenced by other sectors, and how volatile business can be depending on the economic state of other industries. For that reason, it’s important to stay apprised of economic forecasts in related areas, because this is a great way to get an idea of what business will be like for the coming years. So without further ado, here's a brief overview of the economic forecast for the finishing industry in 2017.

People manufacturing and working with corrugated have long known how amazing this product is. And while it is true that corrugated is wonderful, there's now lab-confirmed evidence proving just how great—and sanitary—it is. Here are a few of the reasons we love corrugated so much, and why you should use it any chance you get.

Cleanliness Is Next to Corrugated-ness

Flexographic printing has been around since the 1920s, but it’s been continuously growing in popularity since the 1940s when more and more industries began using the process on an increasing number of substrates. Today, flexographic printing is known across the world as one of the most affordable high-quality printing processes available, and it has environmental advantages to boot. So without further ado, here's everything you need to know about how it works and why so many people use it!

New Orleans technical conference focuses on sustainable materials and practices in coating and related fields.

WASHINGTON, MICHIGAN – Saint Clair Systems’ Vice President of Engineering & Technology Michael Bonner will deliver a presentation at the Waterborne Symposium from 9:00-9:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 24.