Customer Spotlight: Prizma
This month we are featuring Prizma, a powder coating and painting company located in Gatineau, Quebec. Prizma prides itself on the impeccable quality of its finishing work. The company works with everything from fencing and rails to custom fabrication and military projects. We got a chance to speak with owner-operator Tyler Connelly, who told us a little bit about Prizma and how their Reliant oven is helping increase their business.
First off, what does Prizma do?
We’re a custom coating job shop – whether it’s rims or railings, or anything from a fabricating shop. We do small to medium sized jobs.
How did you get started powder coating?
I’ve been in the business for about 12 years. The company I was working for invested in the equipment, I saw the potential so I started my own.
Is there any specific item that coat do more than anything else?
No, it pretty much changes on a daily or weekly basis.
You have a batch powder coating system?
Correct.
Does the batch system allow you the flexibility you need to handle all these different jobs?
Absolutely, yeah. We tackle a variety of different [metal] thicknesses. That’s where the batch oven works perfectly.
Why did you decide to purchase equipment from Reliant?
I have another oven that I had purchased before buying Reliant. It was supposed to be considered a Cadillac, if you will, for batch ovens. I paid big bucks for it. Got it installed and there was just headache after headache after headache.
It was constantly down, and it goes down for two weeks at one time. Then it was a disaster just trying to get any service.
When it came time to buy a new oven, I came across Reliant.
It was a lot cheaper than the other company that I was dealing with. And to boot we noticed very quickly that the service was there as well.
Fantastic! That’s what we like to hear. Would you say that the Reliant equipment and the support has helped your business grow?
Most definitely! The other oven that I have – the Cadillac – I would say it’s collecting dust most of the time cause we run everything through the Reliant oven 75 percent of the time. Of course, if we have overflow, we’ll start up the other one. But the day-to-day oven that does the bulk work is the Reliant one.
It sounds like you guys do a lot of throughput on a weekly basis. About how many hours per week is your oven running?
It’s a workhorse. I would say it’s running 16 hours a day, four days a week, at least.
How has the Reliant oven improved your business?
Well, it’s more and more output. I’m not dealing with a lemon that’s shutting down once a week to stop production.
My customers are expecting good quality and a fast turnaround. Being a custom coater – it’s tough because normally when a manufacturing company gets to a certain scale, they’re installing the equipment themselves. If I’m not meeting those requirements, then it makes it that much easier to lose a customer to start it up themselves.
Have you seen customer satisfaction increase since you swapped over to the Reliant equipment?
Most definitely. I don’t have to lie as much anymore.
If someone was going to add powder coating to their shop, what kind of advice would you have for them?
Don’t do it. Ship me your work.
That’s a good answer!
What is one of your favorite things that you shop has ever painted or powder coated?
Honestly that’s a tough one – we paint a lot of interesting stuff. We’re literally all over the map from pieces that give a heads up on earthquakes to internal camera components to airport security scanners. We’ve coated a lot of interesting things.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Thanks for the support and good product. Your oven keeps me going strong.
Thanks again to Tyler for taking the time to speak with us and to share some of their incredible work! For more about Prizma, find them online at prizma.ca or at their Facebook page, where you can find more samples of their full range of services, including powder coating, liquid paint, sandblasting, pretreatment and more.