When Hytrol Conveyor Company, Inc., headquartered in Jonesboro, Arkansas, decided in 1992 to switch from liquid paint and galvanizing to powder coating, they heard rumblings from their distributors. "They were very reluctant at first," says Bill Hawthorne, Hytrol's vice-president of marketing. "After all," he adds, "nobody likes change." But as the favorable comments from customers poured in, the distributors changed their tune very quickly. For Hytrol, the switch to powder coating has meant rising customer satisfaction, lowered costs and a better bottom line.

At its 10-acre Arkansas plant, 850 Hytrol employees manufacture a wide range of conveyors. "Basically, we can make any kind of conveyor or conveying accessory you want," says Mark Sutterfield, Hytrol's manager of assembly. That includes powered roller bed conveyors, live roller conveyors, zero pressure conveyors, gravity conveyors, and made-to-order specialty items. Hytrol customers range widely, too, from Fortune 500 giants such as Nike, Motorola, and Ford Motor Company to mom-and-pop firms. Hytrol used liquid paint to coat its products for years, but the company found it was paying a price in quality control and customer satisfaction. "With liquid, the mil thickness tended to be very light," says Sutterfield. "Plus it didn't give us good coverage on the conveyors we made, so they scratched pretty easily "

When products were shipped, the jostling from the trucks, the packing and unpacking, and installation took a toll on the finish. Hytrol had to send along a supply of paint with a customer's order, so the new conveyors could be touched up before they were put into service.

"We found powder coating to be much more durable," says Sutterfield. "With powder coating, you can store the products, fasten them down, ship them, then do the final assembly. The products come through with virtually no scratches, looking as good as when they left our plant."

That high quality garnered the kind of customer reactions that quickly won over the distributors. "When we went to powder, I think we were the only conveyor company in the world treating its entire production line with powder," says Sutterfield. "We knew we'd get a positive response from customers, but the response we got was unbelievable." Hytrol is also using powder coating on metal parts that once were galvanized. The powder coated parts show less dulling, corrosion, and deterioration than galvanized metal, reports Hawthorne.

There are other benefits as well, he says. Hytrol saves money because it doesn't have to comply with the environmental regulations on liquid paint. These require companies to maintain an in-house water treatment facility, so no hazardous waste leaves their facilities. Switching to powder coating has eliminated fumes from the galvanizing process and saved Hytrol the costs of air discharge permits and disposing of waste in a controlled land fill. "With liquid paint, we had to have air permits; we had to get our system checked regularly," Sutterfield reports. "With powder, those permits aren't necessary, which lowers our cost."

Powder coating has cut Hytrol's costs in another way, too. "Before we went to powder," says Sutterfield, "almost every unit we made was touched up by hand in a separate booth to get the coating ready for delivery. Now, the full coating process is done in the powder booth, usually with no need for touch-up. That's a real cost-saver," he says, estimating that the payback on the powder system is approximately five years.

Hytrol uses a powder coating line staffed by 10 people on two shifts. The line includes three paint booths. Two are automatic and use 20 spray guns per booth. There are four stations on the line where parts are loaded and unloaded. Operators select the proper booth, depending on which color it is to receive. Hytrol uses binary code readers to track parts through the line.

Hytrol has more than 30 colors on hand. It can spray 101 different colors, overall, by getting the formulated colors it needs from its powder supplier. The availability of a wide range of colors has been important. Hawthorne reports that customers often want to match exactly the official company colors, or blend in with existing machinery, or complement the parts they will be moving. "We've proved we can match whatever color they want," he says. "That's been a real competitive advantage for us."

Powder coating's multiple advantages have paid off in a major way for Hytrol. According to Sutterfield, the company's output before it switched to powder coating was about 2 million pounds of steel a month. It is now up to 3.2 million pounds a month. "We thought powder would be the best choice for us, and it's proven itself," Sutterfield says.