Pressing 3D Laminates and Blow outs

There are many different tips and tricks to pressing. Often I am asked for formulas however I often find that each company may require different settings based upon the material they are pressing, the profiles, glue type, stage height and so on. One common issue that all companies have or will eventually face are blow outs. During the press cycle you can hear a blow out occur by a pop and a hissing sound. After retrieving the tray from the press you will typically find that dreaded hole and all the parts did not form properly because the press lost its seal.

Blow outs are typically caused by either too high of a heat versus too low heat. You can tell them apart because blowouts by too low heat are more like tears and blow outs by too much heat are typically circles or tear shaped holes that seem uniform.

Keep in mind that raising or lowering the temperature alone may not solve a cold or hot spot issue. Imagine if you raise the temp but get heat issues but lower the temp and get lack of forming.... Other issues may be at play such as having too short of a preheat. If your preheat is too short then it may be possible that the heat did not have time to soak or penetrate the entire thickness of the 3D Laminate.

There are different scenarios where cold spots can form such as using thicker films in a 16 mil to 20 mil where the heat has not soaked all the way through the thickness of the product. Imagine if you are using a very dark color like a Wenge which is almost black and it conducts or absorbs the heat more rapidly however you get cold spots blow outs. Then when you raise the heat you get hot blow outs. The solution to this type of problem can be to do a longer preheat but keeping the temp low enough so that you do not over heat any one particular area of the material. You may also want to use heat strips to ensure you are getting heat distributed uniformly in the press.

With membranes on a Shaw Almex, Wemhoner or Italpress for example you may experience less blowouts because the membrane is the source of pressure and that pressure keeps the blowout from occuring. With an Italpresse with no membrane (for example) that inflates the vinyl to the upper platen you get a balloon where the center of the material is touching the platen and heating up very rapidly however the outer portions may not be heating as rapidly and you can actually experience cold spot blow outs towards the outer perimeter of the press. There are two solutions for this type of problem. The first is to have a longer preheat but at a lower temperature so that you get all the material uniformly pliable but not one portion of the film is so hot that it is weakened. There are some machines in which you can reduce the inflation time and then preheat part of the time with it inflated and then preheat part of the time while its not infated. You may need to contact your machine supplier to ensure that your particular model has this option.

Another scenario with blow outs can be caused by utilizing the Eco Jig pin system manufactured by Dackor. This pin system is an affordable alternative to automatic systems (although not as efficient as an auto system). In the Eco Jig system you must ensure that the pins are pushed under far enough so as not to create a penetration point for the vinyl to hit. By pushing the pins under further it creates an even distribution of pressing at the bottoms of the doors and will stop blowing out under this situation.

In summary, there are many variables which can cause blowouts based upon settings.

Step 1: Determine if are having cold or hot blow outs

Step 2: If raising or lowering temp does not help then try working with your preheat

Step 3: If the above does not work email your settings, machine details and problems you are having to presshelp@dackor.com

I hope that this article was helpful, be sure to contact us for further assistance.

3D Laminates Recycled from Water Bottles

Feel good with B2L. As a manufacturer or designer, you have more influence than you realize. Simply by offering B2L to your clients and giving them the green 3D surfacing option you are doing your part to help the planet.

B2L or Bottle to Laminate recycles 2 PET water bottles for every square foot of laminate produced. In the US, approximately 50 billion water bottles are consumed yearly which consumes 35 to 50 million barrels of oil. World wide, the consumption of water bottles is approximately 200 billion bottles of water per year. A large portion of every water bottle consumed ends up in land fills where it can take over 1000 years to decompose.

www.bottle2laminate.com

More and more companies are finding ways to recycle water bottles. Products such as pens, chairs and clothes can now be made from water bottles. At B2L, we bring to you a 3D Forming Laminate which can be made from up to 100% recycled directly from post consumer water bottles.

Although we technically have the capability to make any solid pantone color into a 3D Forming laminate, we have chosen to focus on 4 colors which are Black, White, Antique and Folkstone Grey for manufacturing and supply efficiencies. The next time you specify or use one of these solid colors in a project, we hope that you will consider B2L as a viable surfacing alternative.

B2L is great for

- Office Desk tops
- Store Fixtures
- Wall Panels
- Door and Drawer fronts for Kitchens, Closets and Hospital


Feel good with B2L.

"THE MARKETING of COLOR"

If your company markets components, melamines, laminates, kitchens, store fixtures or even consumer products, I think you will find this article "THE MARKETING of COLOR" to be of interest. Since we are all in the business of figuring out what consumers want, exploring the history of color, how trends are created and how distribution affects color develop is highly relevant. Its hard to be a predictor of future trends however after you read more of how I analyze past trends, I think you'll see that some predictions can, in fact, be made towards future color trends.

HISTORY OF COLOR
As a fellow human, certainly you can attest to how important color is to our daily lives but think about how important color was to early man. The decision to eat one food over another and the color of poisonous snakes for example could literally determined if you survived to produce offspring. Interpreting color and making predictions could be a life or death situation. As a result, humans have certain innate reactions to color that seem to, in general, be universal across cultures. Lets examine more about the history of colors and how they evoke emotions today.

RED: If you look at the color red it typically has two very different feelings; pleasure and danger. If you look at food, strawberries can be sweet and safe to eat yet Hawthorn's red berries can make you sick. This creates a dual emotion that Red can be a volatile color that could create pleasure or pain. Another example of red, are red lips. Red lips in most cultures signify that a woman is fertile and is therefore loosely translated to passion. Today red lipstick is used not only as a cultural decoration but its origins can be traced far back in various civilizations. Another place red was seen in the history of humans is on the battlefield. Red blood signifies the calamities of war which could be disaster if you were on the loosing side but you might feel elation after winning a war and getting to live another day.

Red is a very common color used by certain consumer products to invoke passion however many companies such as financial companies avoid red entirely as it signifies danger or loss. When companies are loosing money they are known to be "in the red" for example.

GREEN: Green typically signifies "wealth". Imagine all of our years growing crops and living off the green of the land. Land use to be viewed as the single source for survival and hence the color green signifies money and wealth. Starbucks is a successful company that uses Green and a symbol that looks like a coin. Have you ever thought that Starbucks sells the aspiration to wealth rather than only selling coffee. Books have been written on the success of Starbucks and how vital green was to their overall success.

YELLOW: Just like Red, yellow evokes dual emotion. One is of hope, happiness and sunshine and the other is in betray or deceit. We all can understand that the sun represents hope and brightness but why is yellow often seen as the color of deceit or betrayal? For thousands of years the color yellow has signified betrayal in most cultures (but not all ) however some trace the yellow color to certain deseases and illnesses that have plagued humans from the beginning. I won't elaborate too deeply in this short article however I may expand examples in future articles.

BLACK: Black typically signifies power, authority, fear and death. When you take any color to its darkest value it becomes black. If you can imagine ancient mankind and how a decomposed body turned black or how a crop or home might be destroyed by fire would be black. But the most moving evidence that early man might be afraid of black would be from when the sky turns black. Today black also signifies authority such as in a suit or when a judge wears a black robe rather than a yellow one for example.

BLUE: Blue can be most closely related to Water and the sky. Do you ever feel more peaceful simply by looking at water or the sky? I know I do... Ancient humans always felt safe when they lived close to water because we can live for weeks without food but only a few days without drinkable water. Insurance companies, banks and even 3D Laminate companies often use the color blue to make people feel safe in using their product. Do you use a particular company due to their color unknowingly?

HOW WE PERCEIVE COLOR:
In a previous article I wrote called "Understanding the Language of Color", I went into depth about various things that affect how we perceive colors. I won't go too deep in this article however I will say that how we perceive color is not always accurate... For example, think of the "area effect". To understand the area effect, imagine making a match to a large 2' X 2' board and then looking at a small 3" X 3" match to that board. At first glance you may think the larger board is more light however what if you found out that you were in fact looking at the exact same color!? Simply by looking at a larger piece is creates an accumulation of color in your eye (so to speak) that gives you the perception that it is lighter than the other. In summation, there are various situations such as metamerism, the area affect and others that can make human perceive color differently from situation to situation.

ANTITHESIS TRENDS
The Mirriam Webster dictionary defines a trend as "A general direction in which something is developing or changing". But what is an "Antitheisis Trend"? First I should say this is a Markism or in other words a definition made up by myself... (you're free to laugh at or with me here) Due to my passion for marketing and exploration of marketing trends I often come up with situations in which there does not exist a marketing industry term. Previously I had come up with the term "Gain Leader"; opposite of "Loss Leader" and I've received a lot of positive feedback on this new marketing term and perspective. Getting back to the Antithesis... My definition of an "Antithesis Trend" is "A new trend created by the desire for change away from the current trend". If you ask a music executive or clothing designer if they have ever experienced an "Antithesis Trend" they would first ask you what it meant and then after you gave them the definition they would immediately point at you and say "Yes ! Thats my reality. "

In the Music Industry, lets examine some examples of Antithesis Trends. Before you think I've gone on a tangent, trust that I will tie this in to how color trends can also be affected by this. Next I will take you on a journey from the 1950s music through 2010 and show how a desire for change drove new trends and then give specific examples of musical artists and how they benefited from the trend change.

Early 1950s; This era was made up primarily with Crooners. This romantic singers appealed to love, relationships and courtship. Artist such as Buddy Holley were big in the 1950s and to say that the decade was full of G rated love songs would be an understatement. Whats the opposite of a G rated love ballad by a Crooner? Elvis...

1956/1960s; When Elvis first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show on September 9th, 1956 with his sexual innuendos and gyrating hips he put a nail in the coffin of the days of the Crooner. Elvis was extremely talented but he was also at the right place at the right time. Elvis mixed the Blues with Crooners and became the Antithesis of the Crooner trend. That is until.

1970s; Disco and the Bee Gees.. Disco brought in an era of excess, drug use, disco balls and dance. Although Elvis had smooth moves of his own, Disco brought in an error of the individual dancing. It is a bit difficult to draw an exact correlation of how Disco was the opposite of Elvis however one can certainly argue that Disco dominated the 70s and that it was very different to say the least.

1980s; Hair Bands. Motley Crew. When the 80s music scene came it as if someone turned out the lights and took the disco ball home. "No more disco for you" they probably grumbled as they exited out the back door of Studio 54. Bands such as Motley Crew and Warrant wore make up, teased their hair and did not come close to breaking out into dance as in the days of disco. It is easy to see how the Hair Bands were the Antithesis of Disco until...

1990s Grunge Rock. Nirvana. From the moment I saw the video "Smells like Team Spirit" and cought wind of the growing Seattle Grunge movement I knew that Hair Bands were simply uncool. Think of how Grunge is actually the opposite of hair bands and make up. Many in the Grunge music scene avoided showers and there were no sequins or makeup to be found. Is it possible that Grunge became popular BECAUSE it was the opposite of Hair bands?

2000s Rap/Bling. Tupac. What is the opposite of a white guy from Seattle who believes in minamalism? Hmmm. Well certainly the opposite of Grunge Rock is Rap featuring videos with gold chains, cars and excess. Rappers are the new rock stars....they say...

ANTITHESIS TRENDS can be witnessed in the music industry over the past 60 years and one could argue that no new fad would have quite the impact if people weren't so darn tired of the past trend. It could be argued that if you want to know whats going to be big, just figure out whats the opposite of whats hot now.

Color Trends Antithesis: Many laminate colorists often discuss how when an economic market declines that darker colors become more popular. Our best seller for the past four years has been Wenge which is a dark woodgrain and certainly one can argue that its in line with what colorists have been saying. On the flip side, colorists also say that lighter colors tend to become more popular during economic growth. This has been applied to laminates however it becomes more complicated when we look at cars or fashion. But in a bigger sense, its important to understand how trends can be created based upon using a feeling for the bigger world around you.

MASS THOUGHT'S EFFECT on COLOR TRENDS

Mass Thought or Mass Consciousness essentially means that there are common thoughts shared by your community that are influenced by religion, culture and socio-economics. As a human you share many common thoughts and each person influences mass opinion through his or her vote or opinion towards a given subject. We have all heard of the "butterfly affect" however mass thought is much more easy to describe and understand. Above I mentioned how trends can be created by the general public desire for change (Antithesis) away from a current trend and I've also given a history of color and how our emotions are influenced by our preconceptions about what colors mean to us. What if I gave a test and where I had a picture of a red ball and a blue ball and then asked the general public "Which ball do you desire more". Wouldn't logic tell you that it would be 50/50? What if you found that the 70% desired the red ball? How would explain it? What if you had a society who was sick and tired of taking chances and dealing with products that did not work and then gave them the test whereby 70% then chose the blue ball? This is a theoretical question and no such study has been done however if you understand color more deeply and if you have spent much time studying consumer trends then you can start to see that such a result may be possible.

The DISTRIBUTOR EFFECT.... on COlOR TRENDS

The next area that can affect a color's success is the Distribution of that product. Imagine that you are a colorist for a melamine board producer and your job is to select colors that will be a hit in the market. Of course you will consider the following:

1. What you are seeing at trade shows. Example: textures

2. What has been selling more in the recent past. Ex: dark colors, warm tones

3. What has not been selling in the recent past. Ex: Items with knots

4. What the market is asking for. Ex: Less movement in the wood speciesand more linear

5. What you believe your distributors will buy into

What would you add?

So you start to ask yourself questions such as "Will the market like it?" "Whats in my line now?", "What trends are coming?", "What trends are going?" and then finally "What items can I get my distributing customers to buy into?" Now imagine that the distributors make a comment such as "I don't have anything in a warm honey shade ..." Bingo. Now if you find a wood species that is linear, warm in tone, looks good with that new ticking texturing you just launched, doesnt have knots and one of your key distributors thinks it will fill his line. Now you've got something.

Now of course I've just simplified the process for the sake of this article but think about the importance of a Distributor for any product line. Do you think that Ford considers their dealerships when creating new cars? Of course its a consideration since they will be preordering the inventory.

In addition, imagine that you are going to buy a sedan and you really want a black Camry and then you go to a few Toyota dealers in your town but they are all out of black Camrys but they do have black Avalons which cost more. It could be that the Distributor might have known that there is a demand for black sedans and so he intentionally stocked more black Avalons since they were a higher margin car. Now imagine deciding to go ahead and buy an Avalon because you really really wanted a black Toyota sedan. Now imagine that simply by Toyota allowing the Avalon to be a higher margin car and then knowing that black luxury sedans sell better than gold ones and then mysteriously black Avalons outsell black Camry's 2 to 1 yet Camrys outsell Avalons. I call this the Distributor Effect...A truly powerful persuasion on the outcome of color sales.

CONCLUSION:

As we examine the MARKETING of COLOR we can clearly see that how humans interact with color can be based upon our preconceived feelings that are on a primal level, based upon trends , Antithesis trends, Mass Thought and even based upon the Distributor Effect. The Marketing of Color sounds like a crap shoot but the more you examine humans, the market and human behavior you will find that its not only possible to predict color trends but to actually create color trends.

Are PET Laminates more green than PVC Laminates?

What's the next bubble? According to Gordon Gekko in the second edition of Walstreet: Money never sleeps its "Green Energy". A bubble or economic bubble suggest that prices are odds with the intrinsic values. The biggest phenom that surrounds bubbles are the herd mentalities of humans. People often follow trends irregardless of their truth or values because they feel safer with the herd. Certainly we can see that there is just a chance of an informational bubble as an investment bubble surrounding any herd movement.

Rather than tackling the subject "What is Green", for this article I won't to simply analyze PETs and PVC and their green-ness or lack thereof.

PVCs VS PET LAMINATES:

As most of this blog's readers know, I have been very active in 3D Forming Laminates since the mid 90s, I guest speak at tradeshows and symposiums and I am constantly looking to further the entire industry as a whole. Whenever I see a competitor do a good job I am quick to praise them to mutual customers. In fact, whenever a competitor or a PET gets a new project it is not only good for our mutual customer to get that business but its good for our industry as a whole.

One word.... Plastics.

First lets discuss the origin of plastics. Have you seen or do you remember the phrase in the 1967 movie, "The Graduate" where Mr. Maguire gives advice to the young man Ben played by Dustin Hoffman? Mr. Maguire gives the fatherly advice to Ben "I have one word to say to you.."Plastics". Since that time so many products have been produced in plastic or plastic based products. Certainly as we are all aware, the PVC pipe that pumps water for your shower or your drinking water is all "plastic". The wires that run throughout your home are all plastic. But where did the non-PVC movement start?

See the clip "One word. Plastics"

The backlash of Plastics.

In the 1990s I remember Europe going through a phase where they tried to reduce the consumption of PVC. This was caused primarily by countries who had limited space and they were forced to burn their trash. During that time all the students in the US where hearing how bad PVCs were. I am sure that many vowed to not specify PVCs when they would become architects or designers. Flash forward ten to fifteen years and now these former University students are now decision makers in the design community. But in Europe they have now gone back to PVC... Why? The reality is that PVC is easier to produce and also it consumes less energy than PET for example.

Can you burn PVC?

The fact is that PVC is not safe to burn without an extremely sophisticated filtering process. Here in the US we bury our trash and both PVC and PET take a lot of years to biodegrade. PVC or polyvinyl chloride is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by a chloride. The real danger comes when your house is on fire however it should be added that your carpet, furniture, drapes and other items in your room can also be harmful to inhale if they are on fire. In fact, a forest fire or natural products like tobacco are dangerous to inhale. See the perspective....So in general if your house is on fire you should leave immediately.

Do PVCs release harmful VOCs?

Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs are a large group of carbon based chemicals that easily evaporate at room temperature. While most people can smell high levels of some VOCs, other VOCs have no odor. Odor alone does not indicate the level of risk from inhalation of a harmful VOCs. There are however, thousands of different VOCs in our daily lives. Some examples include:

· Acetone

· Benzene

· Ethylene glycol

· Formaldehyde

·

Methylene chloride

· Perchloroethylene

· Toluene

· Xylene

PVC laminates are tested to ensure that they do not have harmful levels of any of these products. Also as I mentioned above, all the water that you shower with and that you drink is pumped to you by PVC pipe. Wouldn't reality tell you that if PVC were harmful it would most likely reach you by showering and drinking a liquid that comes in direct contact rather than through a house-fire or through fumes coming off the wiring in your home? I don't see anyone calling for a boycott of showers.

PVCs are everywhere.

In a typical home PVCs can be found in children toys, tools, fabrics, in a wrist watch, in the pipes that pump water for you to shower or drink with and even in the wires powering the computer you are reading this article with..... . Quick .... Grab a hammer and smash your computer now !!

Are PET Laminates more green?

It depends upon your definition of green. In fact, PETs require much more energy to produce and to process in the lamination process. By consuming more energy, more CO2 is released into the atmosphere. In addition, PETs cost an average of 20% more. The reality is that most industries choose the easiest way to process product. PVC is in fact easier to process for both the laminate manufacturer and the furniture manufacture so it can be said that PVC has a comparative advantage over PET in terms of most consumer products. If PET were easier to process, consumed less energy and worked as efficiently then certainly they would be promoted more.

Can PVCs be recycled?

PVCs can be recycled contrary to all of the sites published by certain organizations to state the contrary. The reason that its falsely believed that PVCs cannot be recycled is that most consumer centered facilities are geared around recycling PETs and PPs for example. PVC cannot be mixed with these plastics and this is one issue. Some examples of companies who recycle or use recycled PVCs are:

http://mgmindustries.com/mgm-blog/2011/06/27/can-pvc-or-vinyl-be-recycled/

http://www.industrialrecyclers.com/

http://www.apcrecycling.com/?gclid=CLbXy4e3p6oCFZQv2godvQ9PYQ

How more cost is less green:

Another point to consider is that the more an item costs the more energy it cost to make. Above I mentioned that PET takes more energy to produce but that is due to its hardness and heat levels required to produce and form it. What I am saying here is quite different. Money is representational of time and energy. Higher costs translate into higher carbon footprints. You won't read this anywhere because most people don't equate money with being representational of time or energy.

If something costs more then somewhere in the cycle of that product someone is paying more. That means that someone needs to work longer hours in their office burning electricity or drive their car to yet ten more potential customer in order to pay more for the green product. The point being is that if a product costs more then someone will have to utilize more time, money and energy in order to pay for that product. As a society we have yet to measure the increased carbon foot print of paying more.

Should you sell or promote PET Laminates?

The answer is yes. Surprised I am saying so? The reality is that if there is a demand then it is in the best interest of any given company to give the customer what they want. If I am to use logic to protect PVC, I would also use logic to protect the bottom line of my customer. Listening to customers and their wishes are at the top of all of our lists. Who knows, I may some day be selling a laminate that uses recycled plastics, costs less and will form 3D. I'm being asked for it every day. So even though I defend PVC we all have to use logic.

If you have any questions about this article please feel free to contact me or visit http://www.vinylinfo.org/ for more information.

Should you start making Store Fixture Components?

As you know, its been many months since my last post. I do deserve a strong smack on the wrist for not posting sooner and I have received many calls asking when the next post would be. Since January we have launched 20 new colors and it has taken much more time than expected. I do plan to continue be more frequent with the articles from this point forward.

Now on to the post....

The other month I went to the Store Fixture show Global Shop 2011 in Las Vegas. The show was good and its clear that the Store Fixture market is more active than Home Building.

As of late, I have spoken to several companies who are slow with typical cabinet doors and these companies are looking to diversify their component offerings into other fields such as Store Fixture, Healthcare, Office Tops, etc. If your company is making only cabinet doors are you missing the boat? Maybe but not necessarily....

In this article I'd like to discuss various factors that one should consider before trying to get into making Store Fixture Components. I'll explain the CONS from a pressing stand point, sales stand point and also how it can split your focus. After explaining the difficulties of getting into store fixture components I'll get into the PROS of why one should diversify into Store Fixture Components. If you are a company that already makes store fixture components you may also find this article interesting in that it might give you more confidence of all the additional skills that you and your organization have built in order to be able to diversify.

CONS, What you should consider before making Store Fixture components.

Many companies figure that if they have a press and the press can make a wide variety of components why not get into making Store Fixture components. I'd like to explain the various difficulties and nuances to producing Store Fixture components and how its different than Kitchen Cabinet Doors.

CONS: A. Pressing:

One of the most difficult things in doing Store Fixtures components is that you might be asked to make grommet holes, 2" to 3" tops, returns, new radiuses, "L" shapes, kidney bean shapes and to miter fold. If you are currently producing doors you may have a lot of confidence in your key press operator however the difficulty comes when you have to stop your press for the entire day trying to get a web out of the inside "L" Shape. This can be very frustrating for a company who now has back orders of doors from real paying customers and the "L" Shape was merely for a mock up for a Store Fixture company. What to do? Most companies who produce Store Fixture components rely much more heavily on their glue and 3DL suppliers to trouble shoot their issues. Over the past years I've helped companies get creative with their jigs (used to capture the laminate and pull it away from created webs) for example.

CONS: B. Prototyping: Another difficulty in producing components for Store Fixtures is the prototyping cost and time. When you produce a sample door for a cabinet maker its not only easier but you are likely to need that profile and shape again sometime in the future. With Store Fixture components you may never need that shape again. So if you are designing a Kidney Bean shape with a special dimension and you do not get the project then you have wasted your energy.

CONS: C. Leadtimes: Another thing I have noticed about the Store Fixture industry is that they seem to release their orders and then need the parts in a super rush. Typically for a Kitchen there is more time between when the order is released and when the parts are needed on average.

PROS, Reasons for why you should diversify into Store Fixture components.

PROS: A. Diversification. If you are currently producing cabinet doors utilizing 3DL then certainly by diversifying into Store Fixtures you are opening your company up to new markets. As we have just witnessed with the downturn of the building industry, companies who were diversified into Store Fixtures faired better than companies focusing solely on Kitchen Cabinet doors.

PROS: B. Profit Margins. In this article I won't mention the per square foot cost of Store Fixtures produced with 3DL. Partly because its not the point of the article and secondly because its too difficult to generalize. But since its hard to generalize doesn't that drive home the point that most likely 3DL for Store Fixtures are more profitable on average. Certainly there is more competition for 3DL in Cabinet Doors than Store Fixtures so it stands to reason it would be more profitable. In addition, Store Fixtures themselves typically cost more due to their custom and unique sizing.

PROS: C. Market / Customer Strength. The next pro of getting into Store Fixtures would be that this market has been much stronger than the cabinet door market in recently years. Also many of the end clients are larger companies that have a strong retail presence such as restaurant chains or grocery stores. This can mean that they are on average more stable companies and also that the orders can be quite large. 300 Stores needing fixtures is certainly bigger than 300 Kitchens needing doors.

SUMMARY, And the nature of diversification

Should your company start producing Store Fixtures ? Really this depends upon your company's vision. The reality is that whenever a company changes direction or diversifies it creates more inefficiencies in estimating, invoicing, sales and management. New skills would need to be learned and every job would bring new challenges and difficulties. It is quite possible that by diversifying that you may loose your focus and it may hurt your door business. The other thing to consider for upper management is their willingness to get more involved in the new aspects of the business. Typically cabinet door businesses are built by the owners or management being involved with every step of setting up the company. Over time the management spends more time focusing on their core strengths and oversite and less time in each individual step. The reality, however, is that the reason your company was successful was due to your focus and determination. By diversifying into a new product segment you'll find that it will most likely require a re-focus of attention into small details.

I do hope that this article has been informative. Many other articles I write are full of statistics or very specific data whereas this article is more common sense. But I do think that reading this may further cement your existing thoughts towards the subject.