neering discipline alone; in-stead, it requires collabora-tive, interdisciplinary ap-proaches to research.

The impact of nanoscale science and engineering on society

Nanoscale science and engineering offers many challenges and opportunities for scientific understanding and potential technological advances.3 It is predicted that nanoscale science and engi-neering will change the na-ture of almost every human-made product this century. This field has great potential applications in materials, medicine, electronics, optics, data storage, advanced manu-facturing, environment, en-ergy, and national security. Some specific applications include: lightweight new materials with greatly im-proved strength and wear characteristics; ultra dense computer memory; better drug design and better drug and gene delivery; sensing applications for agricultural, biological, chemical and homeland security applica-tions; improved catalysts for the chemical and automotive industries; new materials to

N anoscale science and engineering is a field of scien-tific investigation that ad-dresses the development, manipulation and use of ma-terials and devices on the scale of roughly 1-100 nano-meters in length, as well as the study of phenomena that occur at this size scale (one nanometer equals one bil-lionth of a meter). This size range encompasses the small-est man-made and naturally derived devices known. One can gain a perspective of the nanometer scale by consider-ing the sizes of some familiar objects. For example, the diameter of a human hair is roughly 10,000 nanometers. Critical dimensions in inte-grated circuits are less than 10 nanometers, while large polymers and proteins are just a couple of nanometers in size.1

The field of nanoscale science and engineering was concep-tually born out of Richard Feynman’s famous 1959 lec-ture, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”2 In this presentation, Feynman pondered radical notions such

as writing an entire set of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin through the manipulation of individual atoms. At that time, the tools required to fabricate materials and devices at the atomic/molecular scale and to meas-ure their properties were not available. The advent of scan-ning probe microscopes and their ability to measure and manipulate matter at the nanoscale, microelectronic and optoelectronic device manufacturing technology, as well as developments in macro-scale molecular model-ing and powerful computa-tional capability, are all ena-bling the ideas of exploiting the benefits of nanoscale manufacturing to be realized. These tools allow scientists to observe objects at the nano-scale, to discover new phe-nomena at these small dimen-sions systematically rather than by accident, and to syn-thesize and manipulate nano-scopic particles by rational design rather than serendipity.

The challenges presented by nanoscale science and engi-neering cannot be addressed by a single science or engi-

Written By: Dr. Hisham A. Abdel-Aal, Ph.D

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

THE GENIE IN THE BOTTLE 1

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2

NEWS & NOTES 3

MANAGING WORKER’S COMPENSATION

4

NAVISTA AMS ANNOUNCES NEW HIRES

5

EXCERPTS FROM ‘OUTSIDE THE BOX’

10

MEET SMF’S NEW EDITOR!

11

Continued on page 6

TECHNICAL & EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION FOR SURFACE FINISHING SHOPS IN AND AROUND THE SOUTH

MAY 2007

THE GENIE IN THE BOTTLE: NANO-SCIENCE-NANO-TECHNOLOGY

PAGE 2 SOUTHERN METAL FINISHING

INDUSTRY EVENT CALENDAR NASF Washington Forum May 1-3 Washington, DC

Sur-Fin 2007 August 13-16

Cleveland, OH

Fin-X 2007 September 17-20

Indianapolis, IN

Southern Metal Finishing September 23-25

Charleston, SC

SOUTH-TEC/Manufact. for Performance 2007

October 2-4

Charlotte, NC

Professional Conference on Industrial Hygiene

October 22-23

Louisville, KY

Smart Coatings 2008 February 27-29

Orlando, FL

Nanotechnology in Coat-ings: Emerging Applications

March 26-28

Orlando, FL

The company operates five plants in the Southern and Midwestern U.S. and Mexico. Its sales reve-nues were $25 million in 2006. Greenkote aims to capitalize on the core IPC operating and sales infrastructure to offer its proprie-tary metal coating technology into the North American and Mexico markets later in 2007. . The new combined entity operat-ing in the Americas is known as Greenkote IPC Inc. Arie Laor, the chief executive of Greenkote, will relocate to the U.S. to lead the new entity. The board of Greenkote Plc has appointed Jim Thomson, the chief financial offi-cer of IPC.

Atlanta, GA Two high school teams sponsored by Nordson Corp. participated in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Ro-botics championship held re-

Forest City, NC Carolina Proc-ess Control (CPC) of Forest City, NC, a well known distributor of chemicals and equipment for the metal finishing industry is has announced the launching of their n e w l y de s i g n e d w e b s i t e ; www.carolinaprocesscontrol.com. The design, development, and hosting was provided by Zurv (www.zurv.com), a Rutherford-ton, NC based web design com-pany, who is quickly becoming one of the preferred web designers for the metal finishing industry.

Shelbyville, KY Advanced coatings company Greenkote Plc, based in Israel, has completed the acquisition of the assets and cer-tain liabilities of Industrial Pow-der Coatings, Inc. (IPC). IPC’s services include powder coating, e-coating, zinc and nickel chrome plating, as well as nylon and plas-tisol deposition (dip coating).

PAGE 3 VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

INDUSTRY NEWS & NOTES announce the winners of this year’s Bright Design Challenge. The project kicked-off on Febru-ary 13, 2007, with a theme of ‘Crossover Vehicles’. The aim of the Bright Design Challenge, now in its 9th year, is to pro-mote electroplated finishes in automotive design. Mike Kuntz, the General Manager of Kuntz Electroplating Inc. and creator of the competition, explains that he has seen “some direct influences of this project on automotive design.”

On April 17, 2007, with a total of 15 students, 4 judges, and several observers present, the final project judging took place. The winners were: Nick Stone with 1st place, Jun Yoo coming in second, Mykola Kindratyshyn in third, and Sarah Montgomery and Tyler Mars received Honor-able Mentions. If you would like more information on this event, please visit www.NASF.org.

cently in Atlanta, GA.

Nordson also sponsored teams from Encinitas, CA and Lorain, OH. Nordson provided each of the four teams with a $6,000 grant. Additionally, company engineers acted as mentors to the student teams. Nordson also provided sponsorship support to the Buckeye Regional competi-tion, which was held in Cleve-land, OH.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international program for high-school-aged students de-signed to inspire interest in engi-neering and technology. Through the competition, teams build a robot that competes in a series of challenges. More than 137,000 students in 23 countries partici-pated in this year's FIRST compe-tition.

Washington, DC The Na-tional Association for Surfact Finishing (NASF) is pleased to

SOUTHERN METAL FINISHING PAGE 4

Written By: Curtis Bull, CIC AIP of The Turner Agency, Inc.

be it $500 or $5,000. Re-member to always notify your insurance company of the accident. You can notify the insurance company of an ac-cident, and still pay for the claim out of your pocket. Please note however, any accidents that have the poten-tial of becoming a lost time injury need to be turned into the company.

Another tip is to always be mindful of what is showing on your loss report. Your insurance company keeps a record from the policy’s in-ception date to the policy’s expiration date of the losses incurred by your business. The injured employee’s name is listed along with the date of the accident, the amount the company has paid, and whether or not the claim is open or closed. If the injured employee’s doc-tor has released them to re-turn to work, then the claim should show up on the loss report as closed. If the in-jured employee’s doctor has not released them to return to work, or if for any other reason the insurance com-pany is still obligated to com-pensate that employee, the claim should show as open.

When a claim is open, the insurance company adds an additional amount of money to the loss known as a “reserve”. The reserve is used to represent the antici-pated additional amount of

What comes to mind

when you think about manag-ing your workers’ compensa-tion insurance? After grum-bling a few choice words un-der their breath, most people reading this article will think of safety programs and other forms of loss control. If that is not what comes to mind, it certainly should be. Any steps that can be taken to pre-vent, or minimize accidents in the workplace are the most important tools for managing workers’ compensation insur-ance.

The fact is, any business that carries insurance has been given numerous publications on, and heard countless speeches about safety pro-grams. There is good reason for this; a safety program is critical. But what about those businesses that have a solid safety program and loss control procedures in place? Is there anything they can do to better manage their work-ers’ compensation? The an-swer is yes, and following are a few tips that can help any business do just that.

The first simple tip is to pay small workers’ comp claims instead of turning them into the insurance company. This is a great way to keep small claims from turning into a big problem. Set a limit for how much your business is willing to pay. Stick to your limit,

money the insurance com-pany will spend on that par-ticular claim. Even though this is an estimated amount of money, and has not actually been spent on the claim, the reserve dollars are figured into the loss as if they had been.

It is very important for every business to sit down with their insurance agent, at least on a yearly basis, to review their loss report. Errors in the system do occur. From time to time a claim that has been closed shows up on the loss report as being open. In almost all cases, these losses have been settled for much lower than the reserve had been set for. These artifi-cially high losses can have an adverse effect on your premi-ums, and your ability to move coverage to another insurance company.

Also, you should always be mindful of the figures being used to calculate your experi-ence modification factor. Basically, your experience modification factor is deter-mined by the annual pre-mium paid over the last three years, and how much money your insurance company paid out in losses during that same time. Similar to the situation with loss reports, errors in calculation of experience mods can, and do occur. It is important to make sure your experience modification worksheet has been calcu-

lated properly. Any error made in this calculation can cause a change in the experi-ence mod. The experience mod is a factor, either credit or debit, which ultimately effects your workers’ com-pensation premium. It does-n’t take long to figure out that a simple error in this number’s calculation could amount to a significant in-crease in premium.

It is my hope that you will find this information to be useful. By no means is every business going to experience errors on their loss report, or in the calculation of their experience mod. That is definitely a good thing! But I have no doubt, that when combined with a proper safety program and loss con-trols, these tips can help any business more effectively manage their workers’ com-pensation.

This article was submitted by Curtis Bull, CIC AIP, of the Turner Agency, Inc. based in Greenville, SC. For more information, he can be contacted at : 864-288-9513 or by E-mail at:

Curtis @TurnerAgencyInc.com

MANAGING WORKER’S COMPENSATION

PAGE 5 VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

NAVISTA ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ANNOUNCES NEW HIRES in Accounting from Virginia Tech and an M.B.A. from the University of the District of Columbia.

Assisting John in the account-ing department will be Daryll Scott. Prior to joining AMS, Daryll worked for various private and public Fortune 500 companies in New York and Washington, DC. Daryll graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.S. and B.A. in International Busi-ness and International Rela-tions.

Melissa Walker will be serv-ing as an Account Manager, focusing primarily on educa-tion and membership issues for the National Association for Surface Finishing and The AESF Foundation. Prior to

Association Management

Strategies (AMS), a Navista company, announced today the hiring of John Hughes, Daryll Scott, Melissa Walker and David Abts. “We are excited to have this talented group join our team in pro-viding quality service, exper-tise and support for our grow-ing list of association clients,” said John Flatley, AMS Princi-pal.

John Hughes joins AMS as Director of Accounting, bringing his expertise in budg-eting/ financial modeling, cost-effective financial man-agement and management information systems to all AMS clients. John has a B.S.

joining AMS, Melissa worked for George Mason University, Georgetown University and a local non-profit arts associa-tion. Her expertise lies in educational program manage-ment and non-profit admini-stration. Melissa holds a B.A. in Art History from Connecti-cut College.

David Abts joins AMS as an Account Coordinator, focus-ing on administrative manage-ment for a numbers of asso-ciation clients. Prior to join-ing AMS, David worked for several trade associations in t h e W a s h i n g t o n , D C area. David has a B.A. in His-tory from Temple University.

“We are pleased to have these four dynamic individuals as part of our organization,” said

Lee Coogan, AMS Princi-pal. “They are a great addi-tion to our existing staff of association management pro-fessionals.”

Navista Association Manage-ment Strategies provides pro-vides management expertise and administrative services to industry associations, coali-tions, professional societies, trade shows and other special events. For more informa-tion, please visit:

www.amsnavista.com.

SOUTHERN METAL FINISHING PAGE 6

and automobile catalytic con-verters. The National Science Foundation estimates that nanotechnology will be a $1 trillion global industry by 2010-2015.4 This will require about 2 million workers in the field of nano-scale science and engineer-ing.5 Clearly, there is a pressing need to train workers who will contribute to this vital, highly interdisciplinary area.

How can such a technol-ogy impact metal and surface finishing?

A powerful promise of Nanotechnology is the poten-tial to manipulate the very building blocks of matter. This ability, when mastered, would allow the customiza-tion of materials. That is, it will enable the so called “synthesizes of application

improve fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions; and improved batteries and energy efficient processes for energy technologies. Nanoscale ma-terials already find use in nu-merous pharmaceutical, cata-lytic, electronic, magnetic, optoelectronic, biomedical, cosmetic and energy applica-tions. Specific applications reporting the highest revenues include sunscreens, automo-tive catalyst supports, chemi-cal-mechanical polishing, magnetic recording tapes, bio-labeling, electro-conductive coatings, and optical fibers. Other applications include dental-bonding agents, pro-tective and glare-reducing coatings for eyeglasses and cars, stain-free clothing and mattresses, paints and coat-ings to protect against corro-sion, scratches and radiation, burn and wound dressings,

driven materials” or the mate-rial on demand concept. So, by manipulating the arrange-ment of atoms, molecules, and the strength or order of bonding, at least in principle, one can induce desirable changes in a material, or bet-ter yet, design a custom tai-lored substance. Such a con-cept is not new, it is applied for instance in polymers where the change of the posi-tion of the molecules in a chain may create a new poly-mer with desirable properties. Nanotechnology induces such an effect through miniaturiza-tion. The common consensus is that the properties of mate-rials at the nano scale differ from those of the bulk mate-rial. This is an effect that we encounter in daily life when objects become smaller and hard to break, for example.

By reducing the size of the particles that make a material, desirable properties may be induced. Such an approach is already applied in coatings by embedding nano-particles to change properties, or by deposition of very thin coat-ings to alter behavior. Take for an example Titanium Ni-tride coatings that are applied to tool inserts, or diamond like carbon layers that are applied to high end computer hard disks.

In the strict sense of metal finishing the potential lies in producing powder coatings that employ nano-particles to induce a desired behavior. For example, adding nano-particles to enhance scratch resistance, corrosion resis-tance, and protect from harm-ful light waves to protect paints.

Nano-Science-Nano-Technology...Continued from page 1

PAGE 7 VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

forces such as water, tempera-ture, and ultra-violet light from the sun. Air pressure, weight, and g-forces will also stress coatings and can lead to metal failure. This can have disastrous effects in landing gear applications, for example. The Canadian air force uses nanotechnology to plate and coat landing gear for Canada’s fighter jets, and other aircraft, to improve the strength of these structures which experi-ence extreme stress during take-offs and landings.

Nanotechnology in metal plat-ing and coating can also reduce friction on the striking surfaces of golf clubs, thus creating a larger “sweet spot” and reduc-ing club weight. For example, PowerMetal Technologies (Carlsbad, Calif.) offers high-end nano-coated woods and drivers; the super-thin face coatings on these clubs help move some of the weight to the dense portion of the club, thus inhibiting longer, more accurate shots. Some of Pow-erMetal’s coated clubs are being used on the PGA tour, and the firm said it is also working on nano-coated base-ball bats, skis, and super-lightweight high-performance bicycle components.

Nanotechnology offers an ef-fective way to address envi-ronmental issues. Nano cobalt-phosphorus, for instance, is compatible with most existing electroplating equipment and positioned as an effective re-placement for hexavalent chromium. Nano crystalline material is considered stronger and more durable than hex chrome. Electroplated nano-aluminum coatings offer po-

The Science and the sci-ence fiction

Nano-coatings have already been applied to a diverse but specialized array of objects, from parts for nuclear steam generators and barrels of field artillery to expensive golf clubs.

Air Canada recently an-nounced it will experiment next year with a commercial jet stripped entirely of its tra-ditional paint job, and instead protected with a nano-coating. The weight reduction will be about 350 pounds, and the resulting savings in fuel could total more than $25,000 per year. Other such cost-saving experiments and applications are expected to follow.

Under a microscope, even the smoothest, crystalline coatings--such as polished chrome--show irregular gaps between the crystals. Over time, this causes these materials to weaken, crack and creep, es-pecially when the structure is under stress. Nanotechnology offers a potential solution: reordering the gaps into a uni-form pattern, or by reducing crystal size. Naturally, the impact of the weaknesses caused by the gaps depends on the application. For a chrome automobile bumper, gaps are probably immaterial. Automo-tive chrome coatings usually outlast the life of a typically driven car. However, in appli-cations where both strength and weight are of primary im-portance, crystalline and mo-lecular weakness may pose a detrimental influence on the surface of the metal and its strength. The irregular gaps can be exploited by outside

of Toronto, who specializes in nanomaterials. The GBE proc-ess is designed to control dis-orderly gaps between the crys-tals in crystalline materials. The Nanoplate process re-duces grain size to create a larger overall grain surface area. According to Erb’s re-search, in conventional plat-ing, unavoidable impurities in metal alloys spread throughout a coating, migrating naturally to grain boundaries and pre-cipitating there, causing weak-nesses that stress and other factors can exploit.

By comparison, nano-coatings the size of the grains is much, much smaller, and their num-ber is increased exponentially. The result is that impurities are super-diffused, through the

Continued on page 9...

tential as a cadmium replace-ment and are environmentally safe.

Nano-coatings are not cheap to apply to date, and the exper-tise required to develop and use the technology is highly specialized and therefore ex-pensive. However, costs are coming down; already there are undergoing efforts to re-duce processing expenses of nano-coating golf clubs and other sporting equipment, bringing these items into a relatively affordable range. In addition, where cost is secon-dary to certain other factors, such as strength and safety, nano-coating technology is growing from a niche into a category within the metal fin-ishing industry.

Nanotechnology is used by finishers of mechanical, optical and analytical equipment, bio-materials and drug packaging, electronics and computer-chip manufacturers, and in automo-tive applications such as antire-flection coatings, in addition to the applications mentioned earlier.

There are two approaches to manipulate grain boundaries in various materials: the “top down” approach, which is trademarked under the name Grain Boundary Engineering (GBE), works down from the surface into the inside of a material. The “bottom up” approach, called Nanoplate, improves coating strength through electroplating.

The approaches were devel-oped with the help of Profes-sor Uwe Erb, of the Depart-ment of Materials Science and Engineering at the University

PAGE 8 SOUTHERN METAL FINISHING

PAGE 9 VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

allel break through in produc-tion at a commercial scale needs to take place. This, however, belongs to an en-tirely different article.

Further Reading

1. For a comparative view of commonly known items and nano-sized entities, see www.nano.gov/html/facts/The_scale_of_things.html.

2. For the text of Feynman’s addres s , s ee h t tp ://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html.

3. For congressional ad-dresses on this topic deliv-ered by leaders in the field of nanoscale science and tech-nology, see addresses deliv-ered by:

- Eugene Wong, assistant director of Engineering of the National Science Foundation(www.house.gov/science/wong_062299.htm);

- Richard Smalley, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Chemistry at Rice University (www.house.gov/science/smalley_062299.htm), and

- Ralph Merkle, Research Scientist (Xerox) and Senior Research Associate, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (www.house.gov/science/merkle_062299.htm).

so called “homogenization by segregation.” A coating with nano-grain size is stronger and more resistant to stress and corrosion cracking.

GBE process can be applied to bulk metals as a surface treatment to pre-finished and semi-finished metals, or a “heating and beating” system. The finished or semi-finished surface is exposed to shot-peening (“beating”), then induction-heated to create a kind of coating from the sub-strate layers of the original surface. Research has shown that as much as 70% of this “coating” is orderly, grain-boundary material, or an ideal nano-coating. For pre- and semi-finished metals, weldability, corrosion resis-tance, sulfidation resistance, fatigue resistance, and resis-tance to high-temperature creep are all improved. Tests on Allow 800, which is par-ticularly vulnerable to inter-granular corrosion, show a corrosion reduction rate from 2.2 to 0.22 mm per year.

It is worth mentioning that there are many ideas that are produced on a laboratory scale or just as a computer simulated product. An ex-ample is the so called “smart coating concept” where, in-stead of nano-particles, a coating will be made entirely of programmable nano-machines (robots). A de-signer, in principle, can pro-gram these nano-entities to increase bonding, reduce grain sizes, increase stiffness or even change the color of the surface. Naturally, a par-

4.

For an address delivered by Dr. M.C. Rocco (Senior Ad-visor for Nanotechnology at the National Science Founda-tion) at the Euro Nano Fo-rum, December 10, 2003, see:

http://www.nsf.gov/home/c r s s p r g m / n a n o /nni031210roco@euronanoforum.pdf

Dr. Abdel-Aal is an assis-tant professor in the De-partment of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He acquired his PhD in Tribology from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. He actively engages in re-search projects, as well as teaching.

You can visit his website at:

http://www.uwplatt.edu/~abdelaah/

Nano-Science-Nano-Technology cont...

SOUTHERN METAL FINISHING PAGE 10

Excerpts from the article "Outside the Box—Pushing the Boundaries” By Paul Fisher of Finishing Market (to see full article, visit www.finishingtodaymag.com)

his or her usual boundaries, and learn to explore unfamil-iar territory. Here are some tips for doing just that:

• Attend or exhibit at a trade show you would not nor-mally visit. For example, a g o v e r n m e n t - s p o n s o r e d meeting such as the Environ-

In this ever changing soci-

ety, it is important to remain flexible and open to new things. The same concept applies to Industry– in order to stay up to speed and dis-cover new opportunities , one must be willing to go beyond

mental Technology Expo or the various Pollution Preven-tion (P2) conferences spon-sored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other government agencies.

• Participate in a govern-ment-organized trade tour to a foreign country, or look for a more regional meeting

sponsored by your state. Some ideas include munici-pality trade shows or Cham-ber of Commerce meetings focused on the industrial sector.

• Attend a meeting for a purchasing association.

• Check out a large electron-ics show, such as the Mac show in San Francisco (www.macworldexpo.com) or the Consumer Electronics Show in La s Ve ga s (www.cesweb.org), to see the new consumer electronic products being debuted.

• Manufacturing shows are another option. I know of several plating shops that attend and exhibit at the Job Shop shows held a r o u n d t h e c o u n t r y (www.jobshopshow.com). These shows focus on intro-ducing manufacturers to the resources of smaller value-added companies, such as powder and plating shops.

• Shows hosted by The Wire Association Interna-t i o n a l , I n c . ( W A I ) (www.wirenet.org), such as Interwire in Cleveland, OH in May or the Wire Expo in Pittsburgh, PA, in June, could also present some new opportunities.

As you firm up your 2007 calendar, consider adding something new. The network-ing possibilities are endless, and you may find a niche that you never knew existed.

ence in that area. I have enjoyed collaborating and working with the contrib-uting writers of this issue of SMF, and am looking for-ward to interacting with a spectrum of metal finishing professionals in the future.

As my knowledge of this industry expands, I hope to also be able to give my perspective on certain is-sues and topics. One of my main areas of interest is in environmental policy and energy efficiency. In subse-quent issues I will try to focus on cost-cutting meas-ures that can be taken to improve the energy effi-ciency of businesses and industries. I believe that with the increase in energy costs and consumption, it is important to find new, ecologically and economi-cally viable alternatives to traditional sources of en-ergy. I would also be inter-ested in hearing from any-one who specializes in this area or has benefitted from implementing alternative energy into their work-place.

That said, I would like to emphasize what is already boldly printed to the right

When I first started

working for Paul Fisher, the owner of Southern Metal Finishing, I was just nearing high school gradua-tion. My main tasks in-cluded, but were definitely not limited to, filing, an-swering phones, and (the most grueling of all) corre-lating, folding, and mailing out several thousand news-letters. As this was gener-ally only a monthly event, my hours were a bit ran-dom and scattered. As the years went on, however, I was gradually given new opportunities that allowed me to hone in on areas that I was interested in, such as Photography. I have had the pleasure of attending, and photographing, the South-ern Metal Finishing confer-ence, free of charge, for two years in a row now (this year will be my third time, and I am very ex-cited!). I have also been to various other events, such as the Annual Carolina Classic Golf Tournament, which was hosted last year at the Cleghorn Country Club.

Now in college, one of my fields of interest lies in journalism, and I feel that this promotion is a great opportunity for me to gain valuable skills and experi-

of this column – we are always looking for article submissions. Whether your area of expertise lies in manufacturing, manage-ment, marketing, regulat-ing, distributing, or even worker’s comp (as this month’s article by Mr. Bull clearly attests), if it can be beneficial to our readers in some shape or form, we would love to hear what you have to say.

Though I am looking for-ward to the upcoming months as I ‘learn the ropes’, I am also waiting impatiently for those months to fly by . As the 4th Annual Southern Metal Finishing Conference draws near, it’s difficult to focus on anything but Charles-ton. (Who can argue with what is practically paid va-cation?)

Hope to see you all there!

PAGE 11 VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

Another Perspective: Meet SMF’s Newest ‘edition’ By: Anna Levitsky, Editor of SMF

Southern Metal

Finishing needs your help with

articles for the 2007 season.

SMF is Mailed to over 2000 Metal

Finishing Pro-fessionals, and

downloaded online by hun-

dreds more each month

We prefer electronic submission of your

articles, which should be approximately

1,500 words pertain-ing to the metal

finishing industry.

Please send your articles to:

anna@southernmetalfinishing.com

PRSRT/STD US Postage Paid

Rutherfordton, NC Permit #154

Please deliver this informative newsletter to the following valued SMF reader:

P.O. BOX 349 Rutherfordton, NC 28139

“Small Town Friendly”

Paul Fisher, Publisher Phone (704) 995-2263

paul@southernmetalfinishing.com

May 2007

SOUTHERN METAL FINISHING