Episode 68: An Interview With Kevin Biller, ChemQuest

Kevin Biller (ChemQuest) and Scott Francis (Products Finishing). Source | PF

Kevin Biller has been a leader in the powder coating industry for nearly five decades as director of ChemQuest Powder Coating Research (Columbus, Ohio), the author of the “Ask Joe Powder” advice column and host of its corresponding podcast and a technical editor with Powder Coated Tough, among other numerous roles throughout his career. Last year, the Powder Coating Institute inducted Biller into its Hall of Fame. We recently caught up with him to hear about his experiences and his insights into where the industry is headed.

Products Finishing (PF): How did you get started in powder coating? What drew you to this technology?

Kevin Biller.

Kevin Biller (KB): Back in the ‘70s, especially in North America, it was brand new technology. It was exciting. Innovation was a huge component of what we did. Coupled with that — and I’m very biased, I have to admit it — when you look at the people in the powder coating industry and technology — we’re the good guys. We bring lower VOCs [volatile organic compounds]. We bring efficiency, reusability, performance and durability. There are a lot of attributes to this technology.

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PF: Can you talk a bit about how your career evolved?

KB: After around 20 years of working for a couple of different global companies in the industry, I decided to become an entrepreneur. I started out as a consultant, which eventually evolved into my own research and development group, the Powder Coating Research Group. At one point in the early 2000s, somebody said, “You ought to write a question and answer column.” We invented a character called “Joe Powder.” It kind of took off from there — that was over 20 years ago, and it’s been great.

PF: How do you feel the powder coating industry has changed over time?

KB: When I first started, things moved quickly. Much of it was reactive, and it was exciting — there were dragons to slay, mountains to climb and everyone had a chance. Innovation was a huge driver. Interestingly, the industry was really started by non-paint companies such as Ferro, Armstrong, Celanese and Mobil. They came at it from a different angle, in a more entrepreneurial environment.

As the industry grew through the ‘80s and especially the ‘90s, the big companies got involved, partly defensively, to protect their industrial coatings businesses. Then, as the ‘90s rolled into the turn of the century, the business and the technology began to mature. A more corporate mentality took hold. We also experienced recessions and overcapacity — anyone who could buy a few pieces of equipment thought they could be a powder coating manufacturer. Alongside that came consolidation and globalization.

Through the 2000s and into the 2010s, one of the biggest changes was the rise of China, which has profoundly influenced the industry — and manufacturing and chemicals more broadly — right up to today. Now, as a mature industry, the question becomes: How much innovation versus how much optimization are we focused on? Those were the main events and drivers that got us to where we are now.

Looking ahead, I see things happening in China that aren’t happening in the traditional innovation centers of North America and Western Europe. Robotics and AI are both strong trends. There are factories that don’t even need the lights on because so much of the fabrication is driven by robotics. That’s a sea of change in how we build things, and since finishing is a component of manufacturing, it directly affects powder coatings.

Robots have become easier to build, lower cost and easier to program, so incorporating them into a finishing line is no longer as farfetched or as prohibitively expensive. Couple that with AI to optimize processes and control the variables involved — that’s where I see the industry heading globally.

PF: What would you say are some of the biggest challenges in the powder coating industry today?

KB: Let’s talk about personnel. As a [baby] boomer — and I admit it — finding the next generation of technologists is a real challenge. My experience in the industry has been technology through and through, and one thing we’ve recognized over the last 10 years or so is that when a college student maps out their career path and says, “I want to be in high tech,” manufacturing and chemistry aren’t the first things that come to mind.

I think what we need to do is get more involved with education centers — not just universities, but also community colleges — to find eager, smart people who are willing to give our industry and technology a chance. I see that happening more now with scholarship programs that didn’t exist years ago, so I think we’re in pretty good hands. But it’s still a challenge.

PF: It sounds like there are things you’re optimistic about. Are there other big opportunities for the industry that we should be hoping to take advantage of?

KB: Five years ago, I said powder coatings were the answer to the needs of the growing EV [electric vehicle] industry. We have the technology — thermal insulative, electrical insulative, corrosion resistance — at any thickness you like, and it answers all the environmental questions anyone could ask about the process. I even wrote about it six or seven years ago, saying this was going to be a major growth area.

Fast forward to today, and things have changed. Given the economic climate and how people are looking at transportation, EVs aren’t going to grow like predicted — especially in North America, and to a lesser extent in Western Europe. People said EVs would represent 50% or more of new cars sold by 2030, but companies are pulling back and incentives have been reduced. Higher gasoline prices may influence that. I really saw powder coatings as ideal for coating everything underneath the body of an EV and getting the right results, but that’s not going to be the growth driver we hoped for.

So I think growth will be more steady and hopefully stronger reflecting GDP and manufacturing growth. That said, China is a different story. They’re growing quickly and have embraced powder as the answer to many of their transportation finishing needs.

PF: A lot of that depends on policy, and some of it could change. And to your point on electrification — we talk about EVs, but electrification is needed in other areas, too. There’s been a lot of progress with prototypes for urban air mobility (UAM). As those move out of R&D and into production, that could be a real opportunity for powder coating.

KB: Absolutely. Historically, so much of our growth was opportunistic. The appliance industry transitioned from porcelain enamel and solvent-borne paint to powder coatings. One or two manufacturers would make the conversion — maybe just one application in one plant, like dryer drums — and then they’d say, “This is good stuff,” with cost performance better than expected.

The automotive industry followed, starting with under-the-hood applications like wheels and coil springs, and evolving into body coats and primer surfacers. BMW clear coated their 5 and 7 Series with powder coating for 15 years — though that’s in the rearview mirror now.

I think a similar situation exists today. When new technologies, new transportation modes, new electronics — whatever it may be — look for a finishing technology, I always hope they consider powder coating seriously, and ideally put it at the top of the list, because I think we can deliver. So I see it as an evolution, not so much a revolution.