The Coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to maintain a grip on our day to day lives, presenting challenges to the way we interact with one another. While there have been promising developments recently indicating we are approaching the flat section of the infection rate curve, there is no indication that we’ll be back to our standard mode of operations any time soon; perhaps not until a vaccine has been cleared for mass roll-out. 

Understandably, we are being approached by an ever growing number of clients regarding the use of antimicrobial powder coatings as a means to help combat the infection, as well as helping to prevent future outbreaks. Erie Powder Coatings’ AM antimicrobial line has been developed to be incredibly effective as an antibacterial and antifungal agent. Third party testing has confirmed >99.9% reduction in Escherichia Coli bacteria, as well as >99.5% reduction in Staphylococcus Aureus when exposed to substrates coated with our antimicrobial line of coatings. Antiviral efficacy against the Covid-19 virus, however, has not been confirmed. 

Covid-19 Coronavirus is an enveloped virus, so called because of its fatty outer membrane or ‘envelope’. The active substances we use have been successfully tested against other enveloped viruses, such as Influenza, Avian flu and SARS. It would be reasonable to imply that those same active substances might be effective against Covid-19, but at this stage testing against Covid-19 is not available, and so we can make no definitive claims for, nor against the use of our antimicrobial line of powders’ use to aid in the fight against Covid-19. 

Note to Canadian customers.   Erie’s AM anti-microbial are currently only available and marketed in the United States.  Health Canada (government of Canada) has decided that all silver-ion products, and virtually any anti-microbial type of coating, cannot be marketed as anti-microbial regardless of whether the producer can prove AM activity or not.  We have been working directly with the government to rectify this, as under the current circumstances this appears to be very backward and not positive for public health.

What can we do to best protect ourselves?

The mechanisms by which Covid-19 spreads are not yet entirely understood, but the consensus is that they are transmitted in the same manner as other viruses including SARS and MERS, through respiratory droplets. These might be inhaled or ingested, through hand to mouth contact. For this reason, hand hygiene is of paramount importance. Additionally, the use of masks may provide a moderate benefit in preventing the inhalation of the virus. Regular and thorough hand washing, coupled with the use of sanitizing products such as alcohol gels, is probably the best approach to minimizing infection risk. 

Current advice can be found on the websites of CDC (Centres for Disease Control), Health Canada, and WHO (World Health Organization).

We have had many customers with concerns and questions with regard to the coronavirus and our situation with regard to the virus and our supply of products to customers.  We have decided to publish the following letter from our president, as follows:

 

Attn: Erie Powder Coating Customers

RE:      China and coronavirus information

 

Concerned Customers:

We have had many questions and concerns regarding information on the coronavirus, specifically with regard to China and sourcing of materials and supply lines for our products, with concern to any disruptions in supply.    Specifically, we have had information requested by some of our customers dealing with questions such as:

• Which ERIE products we supply might be affected in the current situation
• If Erie has alternate sources of materials to Chinese materials.
• If we have stock to cover the next 90 days
• Risks to open orders or projects.

 

In general for Erie Powder:

With regard to supply of raw materials, Erie Powder is in a very favorable situation compared to many of our competitors.  Some of our competitors source virtually 100% of raw materials for their powder coatings from China, and some directly import finished powders.  Due to the current situation, it puts those powder suppliers in very precarious positions.   Fortunately for Erie, we have made a long habit (at times to our detriment, ie with pricing) of preferentially purchasing materials from N America.  Thus, our supply lines are tight and in a very good situation.

Erie Canada sources only a small minority of raw materials that is coming (indirectly) from China and Erie does not source any raw materials directly from China.   Our US operation, which is of a similar size (for production) to the Canadian facility, uses almost no Chinese materials at all in part due to the more recent “Trump Tariffs” on Chinese materials.  Our US operation has used very little Chinese raw materials for the last year or more.

There are some materials such as some organic pigments, TGIC, that are simply, literally, not manufactured anywhere else in the world any more.  However, between local stock and US based distributor stock, we do not anticipate any difficulties with supply unless the current problem becomes significantly extended.

 

To answer your questions more directly and specifically:

1. Due to the very light amount of Chinese raw materials we purchase here at Erie, and the long term use and agreements with N American raw material suppliers, we do not see that any of our finished products will be affected unless China shuts down all manufacturing for a very significant time period, a situation we find extremely unlikely.   This is in regards to supply.  However, if the raw materials markets tighten up due to lack of worldwide supply, we may see raw material pricing increases.   Given the current situation as we understand it, pricing, not supply would be the “worst case scenario” unless the situation gets much worse.
2. We have alternative (non-chinese) raw material supplies for all materials with few exceptions. This has become very important for our US operation and we source from the same suppliers and the “Trump Tariffs” have kicked in the last year.  The exception is for some raw materials that are not made currently anywhere else worldwide (such as TGIC).  However, even for these situations, there are non-direct alternatives (eg, TGIC-Free formulations for TGIC chemistry) and currently, the supply is good.
3. We do not foresee any problems for supplying materials normally supplied to our customers over the next 90 days.
4. We do not foresee any problem with supply of any open orders, whether that is blanket orders or custom make and ship, or for stock products at this time.

 

We understand that this situation could be stressful.

In answering the questions above, we have to be careful to note that we cannot predict the future or further “black swan” events that may occur in the future which may further affect this situation.  If the current situation takes a significant and unexpected downturn, then obviously the overall situation and supply may change.

However, given the current conditions, we are confident that there should not be any supply issues that will affect our operations that would in turn affect our customers.

Please call us or your representative if you have any questions.

 

Sincerely,

Brian Coutts

President

After a long time without publishing any new newsletters, Erie has published in 2020.  We are pleased to announce Newsletter No. 9 being added (March 2020) to our website.

Inside our newsletter, we have added information on the current coronavirus situation, stock RAL colors that have been added to our lineup, information on TGIC and safe usage, and a piece on curing and what is happening with a powder when it cures.

See it in our newsletter section,

Erie Powder has made an effort to get information on powder coating and the industry to our customers and the public in general.  To do this, we have been publishing newsletters to our website.

Erie has just published newsletter no. 8 to the website, for October 2018.  This newsletter focuses on corrosion, with articles and information on Erie’s new zinc primer Z1500-G7, metal pretreatment basics for powder coating, and an educational article on corrosion testing.

See it in our newsletter section,

Erie Powder / EPC is pleased to announce another great product added to our Z-Series, our Z1500-G7 Zinc primer.   This product offers excellent corrosion resistance and protection.   However, it’s reason for existence is the excellent re-coatability it offers compared to most any other zinc powder primer in the market.

The Z1500–G7 product is the same technology as our Z1000-G5 product, but has a lower amount of zinc for applications that don’t need quite as much corrosion protection and require a better pricing point.   The Z1000-G5 has been phenomenally successful, becoming one of the quickest selling products marketed by Erie in years.

Erie Z1500-G7 zinc primer – now readily available, ready to ship.

We’ve just added another newsletter to our website –  for March 2018.  Lots of information on powder coatings, including a focus for this newsletter on problem solving.   This newsletter contains articles on with a spotlight on our new zinc primer, pricing info on raw materials, technical information on textures, and information on the definition of standard durable coatings compared to super-durable coatings.  View it from the “newsletter” tab on the website.

Erie Powder is thrilled to have our new website up and running as of today. We have added a lot of great new functionality and information to our new and improved website.

New features include:
-Improved visuals to the site, with a much more modern and up to date look
-Easier navigation around the site
-improved content – we’ve added our newsletters to the web site.

Most important to this process is the improved content. Erie web site coordinator Marina Muller said site content was the real key and goal on this revamp. “It was so important to get improved information on to the site, and not just improved, but also current, relevant and useful information for our customers”.

Marina relayed that content is much improved. “With websites, it’s important you represent your company, but also important to give customers a reason to return to your website. We have done this in large part with our newsletters. Customers love these newsletters, they are packed with information not about our company, but general information that our customers can use to help improve their business. Previously, we were sending these out individually to customers, and we said, why not post this great content on our website?”

According to Marina, the process was long but well worthwhile. “As with any transition, it was a real process. But we had an excellent web developer in Zoomp! Creative, and we were able to make these transitions with as little fuss as it could be”

Erie Powder is very happy to be moving into the new website, and we encourage any customers or visitors to see our presence on the web!

Staff and management at Erie Powder Coatings are very happy to welcome Pierre Bachand to his new position in the company.

Pierre will be taking on the position of Sales Manager and Coordinator for the Erie Group of companies. His responsibilities will be for overall sales and marketing for the company worldwide, including all operations in Canada and the USA.

Pierre Bachand is a profoundly well respected representative in the powder coating industry. He is a NACE level 3 inspector, and has extensive experience in sales of equipment and powder coating.

Erie Powder / EPC is extremely happy to introduce our latest product offering, our Z1000-G5 Zinc Rich primer.
This primer has been developed by our Research and Development lab to solve the number 1 problem experienced with zinc rich primers – top coat adhesion.

Zinc rich primers have been extensively used in the coatings industry for corrosion control. These products can add incredibly to corrosion resistance of coated steel.

Most all of these products have been based in epoxy in the past, and this has led to problems with top-coat adhesion. Top-coat adhesion can be a huge liability for products out in the field – what happens if the top coat peels off? The customer gets very upset.

This has been extremely difficult to deal with for the coater. Data sheets from suppliers of these epoxy zinc rich products (including ours) state on them that these products should only be “gelled” prior to coating. The reason for this is that if the base coat / zinc rich primer is fully cured, or worse, over-cured, the top coat will often not adhere and delamination is a very real possibility. This is a potential disaster waiting to happen.

Our R&D lab has essentially solved this problem with the zinc rich. While we don’t recommend over-baking this primer, we have produced a new type of zinc rich that has excellent top-coat adhesion. Even when over-baked. Even when significantly over-baked.

This makes this primer far easier to use, and far less prone to disastrous top-coat adhesion problems.

Erie’s Z1000-G5 still has a very high zinc content (60% plus) and still gives excellent corrosion protection. But this product is actually usable in real world situations.

Call your rep or our office today if you would like to sample or try this new product.

If you have interest in receiving a newsletter from Erie, please let us know. Erie will be sending out a bi-monthly newsletter starting in January 2016.
This newsletter will be an excellent resource for people involved in powder application, with lots of information, tips and items of interest. The focus will be on some of the technical aspects of using powder coatings and also education. It will be readable, and valuable to, people involved in powder application at all expertise levels, new powder user to powder expert.

The newsletter will include
– Current news and information on the company and products
– A “Technical Corner” where you will find technical articles on the use of powder coatings
– Articles on powder coating, for general technical and education

This newsletter will only be offered via email in electronic form.

Any customer is welcome to try to this newsletter. But we won’t send one to you unless you request it. Just send us a request asking for the newsletter. You can request the newsletter either by an email to our office, to your sales rep, or you can send a request through the contact page on our website. It’s free, and you can always opt out in the future if you wish, so you have nothing to lose by asking to be sent this valuable educational tool.

The first issue is coming out in January, 2016, don’t miss it.