Bob Kostelnik

After military service and college, I started my first full time job as a lab technician and formulator of industrial coatings in 1965. I spent about 10 years in the lab mostly converting  general industrial formulas for machinery applications. In the early 70s I was hired by a national coatings manufacturer that focused on formulas used to produce residential wall panels that were very popular. This was the first flatline experience I encountered since I had to market qualify my formulations that were used on high speed roll coat and curtain coat lines for plywood and hardboard wall panels. While still in the lab, 100% solids UV coatings for roll coatings started to appear in the US. One of my lab projects was to convert UV formulas for a new company in our area to coat architectural door skins. This flatline was the 1st roll coat line on the west coast to use UV coatings. It was this experience that convinced me that I really liked working in the field on automatic applications rather than spend my time on a lab bench. I spent the next 40 years with different companies and different job titles but always remained in a position to work on automatic finishing applications on wood based products and components.

I focused on UV technology throughout most of the 70s that required that I get more and more involved in the application machinery and systems that were quite different from applying conventional solvent or water formulations. The first flatlines for spraying starting to appear from Europe along with polyester/acrylic formulations that were not 100% solids but were very high in solids and could be  cured with UV lamps (The UV ovens had to change) These first companies in the US were furniture companies wanting to produce full gloss unassembled furniture that was popular in Europe at the time. Spaying flat lines for conventional solvent based coatings started to appear in the US by the mid 80s and have been a rapidly growing market ever since. European machine manufacturers from Italy and Germany dominated this market in US and still are the primary suppliers of flatlines in the US today. During this period I found it even more necessary to work with machinery suppliers to get my coatings market qualified.

By the mid 90s I developed a good working relationship with the largest machinery vendor US of European flatlines and related machinery. In mid 90s I left the coatings industry to manage the finishing division of this same company. I remained with them for little over 20 years until retirement. My primary responsibility these 20 years was to travel with our sales department to design and implement flatlines for both roll and spray applications of all sizes and shapes. As manager of this group,I was also responsible for our fully equipped testing and demonstration lab in North Carolina. Because of my coatings experience I was also called upon to solve occasional process problems and to develop custom training classes for companies installing large or technically complicated flatline installations. The flatline industry continues grow with new technologies such as electronic process controls, articulating arm robotics, and digital printing.

It is with this long history and direct experience that I am most qualified to call myself a “Flatline Finishing Resource”