Forward-looking reflections.(Industry Forum)

It always seems appropriate around this time of year to reflect back over the years. It is a part of ending the old and looking forward to the opportunities to come in the new. Although, as I do that, I hate to admit that I have been in the finishing industry for more than 20 years (I have been told on numerous occasions that I need to get a real life). The recent years of uncertainty in our industry have made several of us "old timers" (I don't like the sound of that), long for the good old days of the more distant past.

In the early 1980s, it was obvious that the future for powder coatings and new technologies in higher-efficiency liquid-application equipment made …