Episode 53: An Interview With Kevin Coursin, The Powder Coating Institute | Products Finishing

Kevin Coursin, executive director for the Powder Coating Institute, discusses manufacturing trends, industry education and what to expect at Powder Coating Week 2025 in Orlando, Florida in April.

Kevin Coursin, executive director of the Powder Coating Institute (PCI). Source | PCI

With this installment of On the Line, PF looks ahead to an important upcoming event for powder coaters — the Powder Coating Institute’s (PCI) Powder Coating Week in Orlando, Florida, which will take place April 14-16. In this interview, PF speaks with PCI executive director Kevin Coursin about industry trends affecting powder coaters today, and what’s in store for attendees at this year’s Powder Coating Week.

Kevin Coursin (KC): The PCI’s primary mission is to promote the use of powder coatings and to educate the industry on powder coating and the sustainability of it. I’ve been with PCI five years — the first month after I started was when COVID hit. During that time, with most live events canceled, we put a focus on our committees to get a lot of work done. Since then, we’ve concentrated on a couple key areas.

First, we wanted to get more information developed on wood-based and alternative substrates that can be powder coated. [To achieve this] we’ve developed white papers, put together two conferences at the International Wood Fair and are in the process of setting up a future workshop exclusively for wood-based substrates.

We’ve also added other additional workshops. I’m happy to say we have truly gone international — we now have a workshop in Canada as well as in Mexico (in Spanish).

We’re trying to educate the workforce and the one thing I’ve noticed is the amount of new people that are attending the workshops. There’s an influx of people coming in, taking over for the Baby Boomers that are starting to retire — it’s nice to see a lot of new faces. We’ve [PCI has] developed a young professionals group, which has grown over the years. We’ve been organizing events for that group and helping them to network with their peers, which is important. They are going to be the people running this industry in a very short period of time.

KC: There are always new developments, even with the powder itself. The powder that was produced 30 years ago, when the industry was young, is not the same powder that we have today. Today’s powders are much smoother. In addition, there are a lot of new, sustainable components that are now being put into powder coating. Technology has advanced with the guns and the amount of powder they can control. In terms of automation, there are robots and automated reciprocators. You see increasing use of cobots in specialized areas. There are a lot of new systems that are making powder coating more efficient and more sustainable.

KC: The biggest challenge is watching what regulations are changing. Europe has some different standards than the U.S. and that makes it a bit difficult for some of our suppliers to make sure they’re maintaining and providing what is allowable. PFAS regulation is an area that everybody is watching. Part of our mission is to keep regulatory education in front of people so all users can follow it and understand it. If they’ve got questions, they have somebody they can reach out to. Within our various committees and groups, we work to develop white papers, webinars and videos to keep everybody abreast of what’s going on. Aside from that, one of the biggest challenges for coaters — and all of manufacturing, really — is just manpower and getting new people trained.

KC: We’ve had really good attendance at our Powder Coating 101 workshops, which cover the basics, as well as for our Powder Coating 202 workshops, which are more advanced. In the last two years, we’ve sold out every workshop that we’ve had. The workshops run either a day-and-a-half or two days with some hands-on development. The advanced program has a whole half day of troubleshooting and setup to try and help people understand how to better do things and be more efficient with their operations.

Probably 30-40% of workshop attendees are new in powder coating — and by that, I mean they started within the last year. They’re gaining a lot of knowledge and they’re learning the language of powder coating. PCI wants to expand on that in the future. Some additional programs we have in the works include supervisor training and outreach to high schools and trade schools.

One of the things I love to do is impart some of my working knowledge to someone younger and help them develop their career. Members and speakers at our workshops and events [also] really enjoy imparting their knowledge to help people so that the industry we grew up in continues being very strong and vibrant.

KC: Powder Coating Week kicks off with the Powder Coating 101 Basics workshop — the last several years we’ve had up to 100 attendees take advantage of it. Afterward, we have tabletop exhibits featuring industry suppliers and exhibitors; this year, we expect around 100 exhibitors exclusively dedicated to the powder coating industry. We also hold a Custom Coater Forum, a half-day seminar featuring two speakers and a round table discussion covering current topics and best practices. Then we have the technical conference, which features a day-and-a-half of speakers covering a wide variety of subjects from new powders to new equipment to insights into running a powder coating shop. [For more information about Powder Coating Week visit powdercoating.org. or check out PF’s preview of the event at short.pfonline.com/PCW25.]

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