THE BUSINESS OF VISCOSITY BLOG

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.

In our first Viscometer Series blog, we discussed the “what” and “why” of viscometers — what they are and why they’re useful. In this blog, we’ll be going over the “how” — that is, how six different types of viscometers work. This list is by no means exhaustive; there are other types of viscometers out there, but not all of them are useful for industrial processes.

If you’re in the coating, painting, or printing industry, you need to be monitoring viscosity. If you’re not monitoring it, you’ll eventually run into a whole host of otherwise preventable issues — issues that can seriously compromise the quality of your production.

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Painting robots can make your processes more efficient, more accurate, and faster, but only if you take steps to avoid common failures that can lower productivity and throughput. There are some common problems that paint people experience with robotic programming, so today we’re going to go over six tips to help you avoid these problems.

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.

Saint Clair Systems has been a leader in fluid process control systems and viscosity control for nearly three decades, and in that time they’ve managed to revolutionized the industry and change the future of manufacturing operations. Most recently, Saint Clair tackled a sealer dispensing issue at Tata Motors in India, and today we’re going to tell you a little bit about our most recent feat and how we got to where we are today.

Automotive paint overspray happens when paint doesn’t land on the target, and this wastes precious time and paint, on top of making the booth dirty and overworking filters. Worse yet, overspray can actually contribute to finish defects, like orange peel, because the overspray can settle on painted parts and cause problems. Fortunately, there are ways you can reduce overspray, and today we’re going to go over some tips to help you combat this problem.

A paint defect analysis is essential if you're having trouble with the quality of your paint finish. There are a number of common defects you may be experiencing, and any one of them could indicate a number of different problems. In order to determine the solution for the defect, you must first determine the cause, and that’s where an analysis can help. Here are 9 signs to watch out for in your paint finish that indicate you should look into paint defect analysis.