Bob Eisel Powder Coating, Wichita and Oklahoma City, offers environmentally safe, high quality custom powder and Teflon coatings

Mid-America Commerce & Industry, Jan 01, 1999

Bob Eisel Powder Coating, Wichita, Kansas, was organized in 1990 and construction of its building was completed in July, 1991. Then it started looking for customers. Since that time. the company has built a solid customer base for its Wichita plant and established a state-of-the-art powder coating facility in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

We recently visited with Butch Steinert, plant manager in Wichita. He has been associated with Bob Eisel for 23 years (starting with the building of oil rigs) and joined the powder coating operation in 1996.

"We don't manufacture a product. We provide a service. Therefore, our entire objective is to give our customers exactly what the want, when they want it. As more plants discontinue their in-house painting operations, many companies are looking at powder coating their products. There are some strong advantages: it's environmentally safe, provides a more durable finish, and is more efficient since almost all overblown particles of powder are reclaimed.

"Our powder coating materials are: epoxy, polyesters, polyurethane, hybrids and TGIC. Customers using these powders are in manufacturing, electronics, aviation, automotive, agriculture, and other areas.

"Teflon coatings provide the ultimate in high release properties and chemical resistance. These coatings include: PTFE, HALAR, ECTFE, XYLAN, PFA, and FEP.

The markets that tend to use Teflon coatings are: business machines, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, chemical. food and hygiene, waste and water, transportation, manufacturing, and paper mills."

One of the keys to successful coating is the proper pre-treatment of the part or material. With that in mind, the Wichita plant has a five stage washing system that is extremely large and sophisticated. Parts move on a 650-foot conveyor. The Oklahoma City facility uses a 140-foot cleaning and seven stage iron phosphate pre-treatment process.

The powder booth has six automated and two manual gun capabilities. Part size and the number of parts determine if the coating is to be done automatically or with manual guns, Steinert said.

The main baking oven is 100 feet long and is a straight pass through type. This is the final step in the coating process and involves baking the coating material on the component.

"Our state-of-the-art bake oven assures even curing and material adherence," Steinert said. "The Oklahoma City plant has a 352-foot oven. A special 850 degree bake oven is used for the chemically resistant teflon coatings."

Steinert said they can handle parts up to 20 feet in length. The conveyor line is 650 feet long and has a range of speed from four feet to 15 feet per minute.

Bob Eisel Powder Coating offers a wide variety of colors. The company purchases powder from 10 manufacturers. If that doesn't complete a match up, the company will custom mix to fit any customer's corporate colors.

"We've built our business by going the extra mile for our customers," Steinert said. "Special consulting to assist the customer's manufacturing process, just-in-time service, final assembly, packaging and storage are just a few of the 'extras' we offer."

Bob Eisel Power Coating is located at 3500 S. Hoover, Wichita, KS 67215. 316-942-8870. Fax 316-942-9737. Or, 3600 Thomas Rd., Oklahoma City, OK 73179. 405-682-4788. Fax 405-682-4982.