Choosing the Right Powder Coating Company: A Comprehensive Guide for Manufacturers

Choosing the right powder coating company can absolutely make or break the end quality of your products. After all, the surface finish is the first thing that potential customers or end users see. Regardless of the quality of the metalworking underneath, a subpar powder coat will leave your overall products feeling inferior.

With that in mind, how exactly do you determine who is the best powder coater for your project? Below, we lay out some of the most crucial questions you should ask before signing the contract.

Questions to Ask Before Choosing an Industrial Powder Coating Provider:

At Winona Powder Coating, our motto is quality from start to finish. That’s much more than a mere tagline for our company. With more than 50 years of experience under our belts, we’ve established a system of absolute quality assurance that extends from the onboarding process all the way through to product delivery. We are an ISO 9001-2015 certified coater committed to superior quality and consistency for every product.

What quality certifications do they hold?

The first step is to make sure your potential powder coating company offers the level of quality and repeatability that your products require. It’s not enough to merely look at a few sample parts. Instead, choose a highly experienced powder coater with a long history of delivering high quality results – preferably a provider backed by certifications that guarantee a certain level of consistency.

At Winona, since 1974 our motto has been quality from start to finish. An ISO 9001:2015 certified powder coater with more than 50 years of experience behind us, our company embraces a culture of uncompromising quality and consistency. Our robust quality control processes extend from the onboarding process all the way through to product delivery.

Can they accommodate the part sizes you need?

Obviously it’s also crucial to make sure your potential powder coater can handle the part sizes that you need. You should not only consider your current part size requirements, but also any potential needs for large part powder coating. That way you can stick with the same powder coating company down the line.

Elkhart Plant:

• Our Elkhart facility features two full conveyor lines with five-stage washers followed by automatic and manual spray booths.

• Powder Line 1 – Parts up to 68" high by 38" wide by 22' long.

• Powder Line 2 – Parts up to 58" high by 34" wide by 12' long.

Etna Green Plant:

• Our Etna Green location features two state-of-the-art powder coating lines with five-stage washers, automatic and manual coating booths, and digitally controlled ovens, all of which are integrated with efficient industrial automation features.

• E-coating – Parts up to 102” long by 48” wide by 48” high. Each rack can coat up to 500 square feet of surface area and sustain weights of up to 2,200 lbs.

• Powder Line 1 – Parts up to 72” high by 32” wide and up to 24’ in length. Additional wash chemistry to achieve top performance with aluminum and galvanized parts.

• Powder Line 2 – Parts up to 70” high by 38” wide by 8’ long. Engineered to accommodate heavy parts with an I-Beam conveyor system, especially efficient for powder coating cast iron parts.

• Large Part Batch Line – Parts up to 32’ long by 8’ wide by 8’ tall.

• Fluidized Sand Bed Stripper – Parts up to 117” long x 56” wide by 61” tall. Total part weight per run is 5,748 lbs with an organic coating load of 62 – 174 lbs.

Can they accommodate your volume requirements?

You also need to make sure your potential powder coating company can reliably handle your volume requirements with the turnaround times you expect. Again, consider not only your current requirements, but your future needs for potentially scaling up to higher-volume runs.

High Quality Powder Coating Services for the Midwest Region and Beyond

Since 1974 Winona has remained one of the Midwest’s premier powder coaters and industrial finishers. With two state-of-the-art locations based out of Etna Green and Elkhard, Indiana, our company has served a long list of quality-focused industrial coating applications including agricultural equipment, automotive parts, marine products, and many others.