Bringing Powder Coating In-House: Closing the Finishing Loop

For years, VFM had relied on trusted external coating partners for powder finishing. The partnerships worked, but they introduced a coordination layer that occasionally added days to lead times and made it harder to chase down finish defects when they appeared.

In June 2021, VFM commissioned its own powder coating line — a pre-treatment tunnel, electrostatic spray booth, and curing oven sized for the kind of mid-volume enclosure and bracket work that dominates the shop. The investment closed the finishing loop and gave the team direct control over chemistries, film thickness, and cure profiles.

The first six months were spent calibrating. Pre-treatment baths needed tight control on conductivity and pH; spray booth airflow had to be tuned to the geometry of the parts coming through. By the end of 2021, finish rejects had dropped to a fraction of the industry average for comparable work.

Beyond the quality story, bringing powder coating in-house also meant that customer color matches, custom textures, and small repeat orders could be turned around in days rather than weeks. That responsiveness has become one of the things customers most often cite in their feedback.