Don’t assume the things you will be manufacturing in the future will be made from the same materials you’re used to finishing now. For that matter, don’t assume they’ll be made from materials you’re even familiar with now. Do assume, however, that your customers will continue to seek out finished goods that are delivered cheaper, faster and, ultimately, deemed better in the marketplace—they will demand material gains. In an era of seemingly endless products and variation, one has to weigh the potential gains against the true cost of adoption to your process.
The formula hasn’t changed much, that’s not the point. Finishing-value is created with cost/time effectiveness, improved aesthetic/tangible appeal and/or improved performance. If you need a guarantee, throw in some bought wow-factor (scroll down to “Of wood and fiber optics” to see how). But as most of you well know, nothing comes without a price.
Opportunity or pain
Far away from your shop, these value-creating criteria are fueling innovation in radical new materials as well as new composites made from familiar substrates. These advances in material design will drive the creation of new products or even new industries. It’s an exciting time but these “advances” can also drive your production nuts. Fabricating different materials can upset your process simply because things coat differently (I’m preaching to the choir). The question becomes: opportunity, or pain in the rear? And the point is, HOW you are able to respond is all that matters.
Of wood and fiber optics
Take a relatively new (5-year-old, patented) “green”1 material product made in Austria to help illustrate a couple of points. I don’t expect you’ve heard of it but if you have, please comment below and tell us about it. While you may never see “Luminoso” on your conveyors, it’s lighting up applications ranging from bars, hotels, casinos, restaurants and retail to jets, yachts, automobiles and homes.
Luminoso is a wood material, offered in seven different wood species. What’s remarkable is that it is manufactured with fiber optics embedded between laminated layers of solid wood. As a result, light is transmitted seemingly through the material, which allows static and moving images to be displayed virtually through the wood. Now here’s a material with the wow-factor built-in. It’s being specified for material gobbling doors, walls, ceilings, floors, stairs, furniture, fixtures and product casings. Caveat: finishing it may give you the flickers.
Others come without the wow. Washington-based NewWood manufacturing offers an innovative line of composite building panels that are made of 50% recycled plastic and 50% recycled wood.
Material swapping flourishes
It’s not uncommon to see a metal or plastic component masquerading as wood or vice versa. One only has to remember a Ford Country Squire station wagon from the 70’s to understand the status humans can bestow on a fake woodie. Did you know Buick’s 1953 Roadmaster Estate Wagons (pictured above) were the last American production cars to be produced with real finished wood applied to its bodies?
Today, we’ve become so conditioned to material swapping that even the best luxury automobile brands use this tactic completely unapologetically. There’s good reason. People don’t need wood. They want the look and feel of wood but not the weight, the maintenance or the true cost of real wood—including its tax on the environment. Consider the meteoric success of engineered wood flooring and the pervasiveness of “wood” laminates to understand the scope of material swapping.
Obviously, material selection serves a critical purpose in helping to differentiate your customer’s products. By simply changing the material of virtually any product, without changing any other aspect of its design, the product can be altered from a commodity into a luxury good or vice versa. Finishers have a significant role in this to help make it happen.
The opportunity is priceless
Now is the best time to consider how new technologies in coatings are changing the way different materials are being used. For example, in the recreational vehicle industry, many OEMs are swapping out wood interiors for lighter plastic, injected foam or molded foam that very closely resembles wood. All it really takes is a good coating, right? If they could sell that Country Squire you can sell an RV kitchen.
For the most material gain your business can leverage, consider these five new rules:
- Unlearn outdated practices—don’t hang your hat solely on jobs you’ve done in the past
- Accept the added, short-term costs—update your facilities and add skills
- Face the learning curve needed to work out and execute a new processes
- Change what you know—align yourself with partners who can help you achieve your strategy
- Ask your coatings provider or trusted advisors for recommendations on how you might take advantage of new opportunities related to raw materials
INSIGHT:
Finishers beware: “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.”2
I welcome your comments, questions or more discussion.
1. LUMINOSO is considered to be a green product. LUMINOSO is made of three components: wood, glue and fiber optics. The vast majority of LUMINOSO is made from solid wood. The glue used to adhere the wood and fiber optics is free from formaldehyde and PCP. The fiber optics, made of PMMA, constitute the smallest portion of the product. 2 Emile Chartier, philosopher