In the latest installment of Products Finishing's (PF) On the Line, we caught up with Connor Callais, product manager at Hubbard-Hall (Waterbury, Connecticut), to talk about the fundamentals that finishers most often get wrong in parts cleaning and pretreatment, best practices for bath chemistry maintenance and regulatory trends shaping the industry. Callais, a member of PF's 40 Under 40 Class of 2023 and a regular contributor to the PF's Ask the Expert column, draws on his years as a technical application specialist working hands-on with customer lines to explain where finishing operations tend to go wrong — and how closer monitoring and earlier conversations with suppliers can prevent it.

When Products Finishing profiled Graymatter Robotics in 2024, the company was an early-stage venture founded by three USC researchers targeting a problem that traditional automation had largely ignored — high-mix, high-variability surface finishing. In this installment of On the Line, PF catches up with Rand Owens, GrayMatter's head of marketing and go-to-market, to get an update on the company's growth, its expanding customer base, and the increasingly sophisticated AI at the center of its work. 

In this installment of Products Finishing's (PF) On the Line, PF editor-in-chief Scott Francis catches up with Remington Schieffer, vice president of American CRS Equipment, revisiting a conversation the two began in a previous episode. Schieffer discusses the latest technology and trends in the rectifier space, the evolving landscape of safety compliance and his passion for education initiatives that are helping metal finishers across the country keep their lines — and their workers — safer.

Kevin Biller has been a leader in the powder coating industry for nearly five decades as director of ChemQuest Powder Coating Research (Columbus, Ohio), the author of the "Ask Joe Powder" advice column and host of its corresponding podcast and a technical editor with Powder Coated Tough, among other numerous roles throughout his career. Last year, the Powder Coating Institute inducted Biller into its Hall of Fame. We recently caught up with him to hear about his experiences and his insights into where the industry is headed.

Products Finishing recently surpassed the milestone of our 65th installment of our On the Line podcast. It seems like as good a time as any to take a moment to look back on the podcast, which launched in January 2021 and celebrate 5 years of interviews from finishing industry professionals. In this episode, we share a couple of excerpts from an older episode and one more recent touching on important trends in the finishing industry. 

In this latest installment of On the Line, Products Finishing revisits the perennial topic of workforce trends. With so much evolution in the ways we work, from new automation technologies to rapid improvements in AI and machine learning, the opportunities, as well as the challenges for workers are constantly changing. We recently caught up with PF columnist Matthew Kirchner, the president of the industry education consultancy LAB Midwest, and host of the TechEd Podcast to hear his take on workforce trends in manufacturing and industry education.

Industry education events represent key opportunities for attracting and retaining new talent. In the most recent installment of Products Finishing's On the Line, we talk with Sheila LaMothe, vice president of strategic initiatives for the Chemical Coater's Association International (CCAI, Independence, Ky.). In her role, LaMothe has worked to found several industry education initiatives for CCAI, including its Finishing Education Foundation, for which she serves as the executive director, as well as the Women in Finishing Forum, which will take place May 4-6 in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Kicking off 2026, PF explores some of the latest trends in media blasting and surface prep. Brandon Acker, president of Titan Abrasive Systems (Ivy, Pennsylvania), a manufacturer of media blasting equipment and custom engineered blast rooms, took some time to sit down with us and talk through the latest.

In this installment of Products Finishing's On the Line, we explore trends in electroless nickel (EN) plating, including hybrid applications in an interview with Brad Durkin, conference director for the Electroless Nickel Conference (ENC), which was recently held in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the third year for the event since its revival after a decade-long hiatus. ENC's growing success underscores the growing relevance of EN plating in today's advanced manufacturing landscape. In this interview, Durkin discusses trends and topics at the forefront of this year's ENC, as well as his take on the role of EN technology in manufacturing today.

2025 was a challenging year for all of manufacturing, including the surface finishing industry. With economic uncertainty surrounding tariffs, shifts in the regulatory landscape, and the increasing influence of automation solutions, the industry continues to face uncharted territory. In this episode of On the Line, Products Finishing looks back at some of its interviews from the year, along with insights from PF brand vice president Todd Luciano.  The episode includes excerpts from interviews with the following: John Jenkins, Precision Spray and Coatings Jeff Halonen, Steelhead Technologies Tim Gotsick, MacDermid Enthone Industrial Solutions