This post is to give you an understanding and appreciation for the logistics behind many of our projects, which I suppose you’d really only care about if a) you’re a customer, or b) you can relate as a business owner. Reader, you’ll soon understand why we try to keep absolutely every step of our fabrication process in-house. Sometimes though, there are some aspects of a project we are just not equipped to handle. Powder-coating, for example, has been a major pain-point. Until recently, we have been let down time and time again, after trying every single powder and industrial coating operation within close proximity to the city. Some, for a time, will work out fine, and then lo and behold, something goes tits up somewhere along the line. Without fail. We’ve had deadline issues, discoloration problems, delivery fuck-ups, finishes marred, inability to obtain specific colours, colour-match faux-pas, flaking, to name but a few powder-coating problems.
Outsourcing waterjet or laser cutting, same thing: unreliable quoting, questionable quality cutting, missing deadlines, miscalculated measurements, screwed-up design, etc.
Typically the things we have to outsource are: hot-dip galvanizing (we don’t do much of this because it’s a paint in the ass and we prefer to just use aluminum where possible), powder-coating (we do LOTS of this), onsite industrial coating, waterjet and laser cutting, white glove delivery, and heavy plate roll-forming. All other fabrication components are kept in-house, and that’s the way we like it. When you outsource, you are at the mercy of, and only as good as, your provider. Over the years, for the most part, we have established very strong relationships with our network, but it’s taken a long time and plenty of trial-and-error. We find it preferable to control most process steps in-house as much as possible. We do all of our own design, layout, brakeforming, welding, rolling, which ultimately saves our clients money and saves us a ton of time and hassle.
Outsourcing waterjet or laser cutting, same thing: unreliable quoting, questionable quality cutting, missing deadlines, miscalculated measurements, screwed-up design, etc.
Typically the things we have to outsource are: hot-dip galvanizing (we don’t do much of this because it’s a paint in the ass and we prefer to just use aluminum where possible), powder-coating (we do LOTS of this), onsite industrial coating, waterjet and laser cutting, white glove delivery, and heavy plate roll-forming. All other fabrication components are kept in-house, and that’s the way we like it. When you outsource, you are at the mercy of, and only as good as, your provider. Over the years, for the most part, we have established very strong relationships with our network, but it’s taken a long time and plenty of trial-and-error. We find it preferable to control most process steps in-house as much as possible. We do all of our own design, layout, brakeforming, welding, rolling, which ultimately saves our clients money and saves us a ton of time and hassle.
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