Plant tours require a separate registration fee to cover the cost of tour transportation and refreshments.  Conference attendees will be given priority for plant tours.  Be sure to register for a tour if you plan to participate in one.  Plant tour registration is only available until September 16.  Tours have limited availability so register early!

 1. MetoKote
Located 25 minutes from Nashville, MetoKote’s Tennessee facility has been supplying powder coating and electrocoating services  to various industries since 1990.  Housed inside the facility are two state-of-the-art monorail electrocoating lines and one powder coating line.  During our tour, we’ll visit these lines, which are able to accommodate a variety of part sizes up to 10’ long and 5’ wide.  This facility specializes in meeting after-market sheet metal coating requirements and also offers light assembly, packaging, and direct shipping. The Lebanon facility has been ISO/TS 16949:2002 certified since 2005 and QS-9000/ISO 9002 since 1998.  The plant covers 72,000 square feet with 18 shipping and receiving docks. 

2. A.O. Smith
This tour will visit A.O. Smith Water Products plant in Ashland City where they manufacture residential water heaters.  Including the local distribution center, this facility is more than 1.5 million square feet under roof.  Approximately 850 hourly employees work in the manufacturing plant at this location.  The tour will include A.O. Smith’s two types of production coating systems.  The first system coats tanks with porcelain spray that then go through ovens to create an enameled tank lining.  This line consists of a 5-stage alkali washer and a 3-zone U-shaped radiant tube furnace with a 160 ft. hot zone.  Line speed is typically 18 fpm with a cure time of 35 min at 1650F. 

The second is a wet paint spray system for the outer sleeve and peripheral equipment on water heaters.  It consists of a 4-stage alkali washer with an iron phosphate bath.  Nordson RA-20 rotary atomizers apply high-solids paint that is then cured in a gas-fired tandem ovens for approximately 8 min at 390 to 400F.  Line speeds range between 24 – 28 ft/min.  A.O. Smith inventories 13 different paint colors and has the capability of changing colors within 10 -15 seconds on its paint line. All changeovers are done to a preprogrammed recipe implemented by bar code scanner.