Client: A manufacturer of steel and aluminum furniture that operates an inline three stage pretreatment system for their powder coating operation. Challenge: The manufacturer was in need of a low foaming, highly effective cleaner / coater that could be used to properly clean and coat their steel and aluminum parts. The client’s current material operated at 4% by volume and required frequent chemical additions to provide the proper cleaning strength. Solution: This client switched their cleaner / coater to HitSol CC353. This change allowed the client to effectively clean and coat steel and aluminum parts at 3% by volume. HitSol CC353 also produced less foam and required less frequent additions to maintain its cleaning power. By switching to this product, the client realized an improvement in the cleanliness of its parts as well as a reduction in chemical usage. Advantages Realized by the Manufacturer: • Reduction in material usage costs • Increase in part cleanliness • Reduction in foam

Client: A Midwest based powder coating job shop that focuses on quick turnaround times of small batches of parts. A majority of these parts are for the racing industry and must meet high performance and durability demands. The coater must have great attention to detail to meet the performance and aesthetic requirements of his customers. Challenge: The job shop could not afford to spend the time to media blast all of its parts prior to powder coating, nor did the customer want to install a large wash cabinet or in line wash system. The job shop was in need of a way to quickly and effectively clean and prepare both steel and aluminum parts for powder coating. Solution: This job shop was able to achieve its goals of increasing efficiency in the cleaning operation in a cost effective manner. Through the use of a manual spray application, the HitSol CC353 is able to effectively remove soils while imparting an iron phosphate conversion coating on both steel and aluminum substrates. The product operates efficiently at 130° F in order to provide maximum cleaning power while minimizing energy costs. The team at HIT Solutions was able to analyze the coater’s parts to determine the appropriate amount of contact time necessary for the proper cleaning and conversion coating to take place. Advantages Realized by the Coater: • Improved time efficiency of cleaning • Ability to use product on both steel and aluminum substrates • Cost effective removal of soils • Reduction in inventory costs by utilizing HIT Solutions’ local warehouse

Client: A midsized fabrication shop located in the Midwest that fabricates parts for a variety of OEM manufacturers in the construction equipment, agricultural equipment, and decorative metal industries. Challenge: The client was installing a new powder coating line that would allow for increased throughput as well as provide the pretreatment necessary to meet CAT’s 1E4093B performance specification. The client had traditionally run a small three stage pretreatment line and was in need of technical support to ensure compliance with CAT’s specification. Solution: The HIT Solutions team conducted a line survey to learn the specifics of the newly installed pretreatment line. With this information, HIT Solutions provided multiple 5 stage pretreatment chemical system options that would allow the client to meet the performance specification. Once the most cost effective system was chosen, HIT Solutions provided the client with operating manuals for the chemicals in the pretreatment system, operator training for line maintenance and titrations, onsite start up technical support, and monthly titration checks. The client and HIT Solutions worked together to ensure the line was operating properly from the start up to everyday production. Advantages Realized by the Fabricator: • Selection of the correct materials to meet their performance goals • Cost effective pretreatment system • No cost training • On-going technical assistance

Client & Challenge: A supplier of military vehicle parts was experiencing difficulty getting a consistent, high-quality zinc phosphate coating. After years of system and service representative changes, this customer was left with many unanswered questions. Solution: HIT Solutions was called-in and performed an in-depth line audit that included equipment inspection, titrations, and bath analyses. The results of this in-depth audit by HIT had them lead a team approach with the customer, equipment partners, and nozzle suppliers. Utilizing HIT Solutions' experience and expertise, several projects were initiated. The first project fixed an oil separator on the cleaner system that had been inoperable for several years. By fixing this separator, oil accumulation in the cleaner stage was significantly decreased, thus increasing the useful life of the said cleaning stage by several weeks. The second project was addressing chemical usage. Several stages in this seven-stage washer were using excessive chemistry to try and fix perceived quality issues. In fact, the addition of this additional chemistry was only making the problems worse. HIT suggested bringing the chemicals into appropriate ranges by adding an additive to the Bonderite ZM1 Zinc Phosphate stage to address the quality concerns. These changes resulted in lowering chemical cost by 7%, while also solving the quality concerns with the use of the additive.

Client: A manufacturer of steel and aluminum furniture that operates a powder coating finish line. Challenge: The manufacturer’s parts require a highly aesthetic powder coat finish. When there are blemishes in the powder coating the entire part must be stripped and recoated. Due to the emphasis on appearance the powder coating cannot be removed with a media blast. The client had been using a solvent based powder coating stripper. This product was highly flammable and dangerous to employees. The product also evaporated quickly from their dip tank. The client was in need of a less dangerous and more user friendly method of removing powder coating from their rework parts. Solution: This client switched their powder coating removal dip tank to HitSol HSC829. The client reduces this product 1:1 with water and operates its dip tank at 160° F. The parts remain submerged in the heated water based solution for 5 – 10 minutes. After removal from the tank the powder coating is removed with a high pressure water wash and hung on the pretreatment line to be cleaned and powder coated. HitSol HSCC829 did not evaporate as quickly or pose the flammability concerns that the preceding solvent borne product had. Advantages Realized by the Manufacturer: • Reduction of flammability concerns • Quick and effective removal of powder coating