Most companies pride themselves on the quality of their products and services. If you are touting your products as the best around, are you doing everything you can to make sure that your process, equipment and personnel are living up to that claim? This week two of our bloggers touch on how to ensure that you are providing the quality you claim and how to protect yourself from product failures.

Phil Stevenson discusses way to protect yourself from any sort of liability that might follow finish failure in his blog Preventing Product Liabilities. He says, “Of all finish failures AWFI has documented, approximately 70 percent of failed finishes are attributed to application related problems. The remaining 30 percent of finish failures are due to coating material problems. Of the product liability cases that end up in legal action, only 5 percent are settled in favor of the wood finishing manufacturer. In light of this statistic, the industry must position itself  to better prepare to withstand any product liability issue that may develop. 

Diane Shattuck suggests conducting an audit of your shop in her blog, Give Yourself a Shop Audit. She says, “Taking a good look at your tools, people and the systems in place, you may find that by spending a little time and effort now you will gain huge profits overall. I receive many calls asking for assistance on finishing systems, equipment as well as help conducting shop audits to help streamline business and gain more profit. Finishing is the last step before we deliver our goods and many times we blame the profit losses because we had to delay or rework the finish due to unforeseen circumstances.” Diane goes through a handful of areas in your shop to inspect and make sure they are performing as best they should.

David Jackson follows up his blogs on catalyzed varnish with a blog that takes a look at the properties of lacquer. David will be writing a series of blogs that each look at the properties of differ types of finishes. He says, “A true lacquer relies solely on the evaporation of solvent for its cure. Lacquers form a film by the resin molecules becoming entangled together as the solvents evaporate. True lacquers can be applied to a surface and, with the correct solvents, be completely dissolved again because no cross-linking occurred in the coating.” This series of blogs will really help you understand why your finishes perform the way they do.

If you want more valuable advice from our bloggers, be sure to join us in Atlanta for the 2012 IWF Finishing Symposium. The symposium will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 21 from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. All four of our bloggers - Phil Stevenson, David Jackson, John Howell and Diane Shattuck, will be presenting. You can learn about each of their presentations on our Symposium Page. While IWF doesn't have a registration page up just yet, you can find out more information about what will be offered and presented on our site and you can contact Ross Scovotti to learn more about registering. Plus, I'll be sure to keep you up to date as more information becomes available from IWF. 

I hope to see you sitting in the audience in Atlanta! 

Comment on this story Interesting Created by Wellons Wood Boiler in 3/20/2012 1:32:46 PM Great article, good luck in Atlanta. Too much travel for me to get there ;( Delete UnApprove Your Name Email Website Title Comment New Comment Enter the code