Powder instead of paint

By TIM PRESTON - The Independent

WURTLAND March 20, 2008 03:19 pm

— Matt Abrams, founder and owner of A’s Custom Powder Coating, is ready for the leap from small business to emerging industry.
He has a high degree of confidence in his products and services and an innovative approach to solving problems he knows are being faced in work environments near and far.
“A lot of people see powder coating every day and have no idea what they’re looking at,” said Abrams, explaining the fundamentals of the powder coating process. “Nearly all appliances, things like stoves and refrigerators, have powder coating. Once you start looking, you’ll see it really is everywhere.”
Among the advantages of the process, it has no negative impact on the environment, Abrams pointed out.
“It’s all environmental green,” he said, explaining his shop is in a residential neighborhood and he can’t do anything which would pose a threat to even his closest neighbors.
Unlike a coat of paint, a powder coated finish is bonded with the metal beneath at a molecular level. The raw coating arrives in bags of nearly infinite colors, and is given an electrical charge as it is lightly sprayed onto a clean metal surface with an opposite charge, causing the fine powder to adhere to the foundation surface.
The coated metal is then baked in a massive oven. A short time later, when the part is cool enough to touch, it is ready for immediate use and has a finish which is nearly impossible to remove or damage.
“It can be destroyed, but it takes a real licking,” he said, pausing to find a powder coated bicycle frame which was tied to the back of a truck and dragged down the road for a durability test. The jet black frame is scraped, dented and dinged, but still has a nearly flawless finish even in areas where the piece obviously suffered serious impact.
A major motorcycle enthusiast, Abrams first encountered the process of powder coating when he and friends John and David Mosely were building a trio of Triumphs. While optimistic about product performance, he wasn’t too excited about the final product.
“I wasn’t crazy about the job,” he said, explaining he was motivated to buy some basic tools and materials and give it a shot himself. Even with limited knowledge and equipment, “It came out better than what I paid to have done.”
Encouraged, he enrolled for technical training in powder coating at a school in North Carolina, graduated and went to work for himself.
“It was kind of rough and slow because I did it all out of pocket,” he said, recalling his early efforts, quickly remembering to give credit to family members who have helped him answer telephones and “keep up with the business end” since he earned his first dollar at the shop in June 2005.
Since those early days, he’s learned a few techniques and touches to the process, working primarily with automotive and motorcycle applications, as well as machine shop parts. Among the fresh-from-the-oven projects recently was a set of gleaming green wheels for a 1929 Ford being restored by Don Grubb. Checking on his collection of car parts, Grubb said he went with powder coating instead of paint largely due to the long term protection it provides.
Born and raised in Raceland, Abrams is a boilermaker by trade and an experienced welder who has completed jobs for nearly every major company in the area, as well as complex projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In hindsight, each of those jobs, including time on the railroad, taught him about places and tasks which would be better suited to powder coating than paint.
He considers things like mechanical switches and other devices with tight tolerances which are used in daylight and dark, subjected to grease or solvents, and critical to worker safety, productivity and performance. For each application, he thinks of a powder coating solution, citing glow-in-the-dark finishes as an easy approach to industrial parts found in exterior uses and in need of long-lasting protection from the elements. Powder coating is also an excellent finish for items which endure high heat, including engine and exhaust components.
Abrams is also finding ways to do new things with the technology.
“When I first started powder coating they said you could not two-tone anything with it,” he said, showing photos of gas tanks and other parts he crafted using distinctly different shades.
He said the two-tone problem was answered with the help of a friend, the right masking and a few tests in the big oven. In a similar way, he also worked his way around the accepted fact that large, flat objects can’t be powder coated. Abrams now works with items up to 18 feet long and eight feet wide, the interior size of his shop’s oven.
As a business owner, Abrams has his sights set on working with local companies and creating local jobs.
“I would like to be running 20,000 to 30,000 parts a month for any type manufacturer and create more opportunity. This can be taught to people to produce more jobs,” he said.
While he has an obvious passion for powder coating, Abrams is also a tried and true welder who specializes in making custom wrought iron fences for private and business applications, as well as window and door guards and other wrought iron products.
For more information about A’s Custom Powder Coating, 900 Wurtland Ave., call (606) 834-1122.
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.