Whether you’re applying protective coatings to industrial vehicles to get them road ready or refinishing watercraft exteriors to withstand the threat of corrosion in salty maritime environments, the goal is always to achieve clean, precise lines and beautiful results.
Skilled and properly trained coating technicians are one part of the equation. Equipping them with the best tools and supplies for the job is the other—and the quality of those tools can be just as important as the skills to use them.
Providing coatings techs with the right tools seems simple enough. But it isn’t always so clear what tools are the best and how, specifically, they benefit your business. There may be some temptation to base tool and equipment purchasing decisions on cost alone; sooner or later, as businesses examine year-over-year growth, the tendency to start cutting costs in an effort to boost profitability can result in downgrading to next-best materials. But beware: In the automotive, marine and industrial coatings industry, such measures are likely to bring more risk than reward.
This is very much the case for performance masking tapes. Stocking up on an inferior tape product might look like an attractive purchasing decision on your project’s balance sheet. But the truth is lower-performing tapes can actually wind up costing your business considerably more in the long run than the small savings you earned up front. Here are three ways tape failure can threaten your businesses.
Disrupting your workflow
Your business is only as profitable as it is efficient. So, what happens when a tape reveals that it’s not able to hold up under the rigors of your production process? At best, your team is repeating a step or two; at worst, they’re forced to start over. Either way, setbacks, inefficiencies and reworks mean more time to get the job done. And more time means less profit.
Damaging the surface
You’re relying on tape to protect boats, vehicles and industrial equipment from solvents and other stringent chemicals in the coating application process. So, when a subpar tape fails to provide that protection, the surface damage has the potential to require costly repairs or even a complete replacement.
Tarnishing your reputation
It takes a considerable amount of time for your business to earn a name as a trusted, reliable service provider. But tape failures that result in damage to your customer’s property or lead to extended turnaround times negatively impact the way customers ultimately view the quality of your craftsmanship and even your customer service. Even if you work hard to correct any errors or missteps along the way, the physical product damage or timeline disruption can leave a customer with a bad impression of your business. And it only takes one bad customer experience for word to spread quickly.
The best performance masking tapes are engineered with the ability to conform to curved and inconsistent surfaces, excellent adhesion to a variety of substrates to prevent bleed and robust durability to resist solvents during coating and prevent shredding during removal. And all of that equates to tools that save time and yield better results.
The decision to invest in a quality tape product is a decision to invest in your business, too. Look to industry-leading tape manufacturers to find the right tape for the job so that you can confidently do your best work every time.
Want to know more? Learn how performance masking tapes help achieve the bests industrial coatings results.