Shortly before their wedding day in 1987, Jay and Shari Kaser put up Shari’s grey Honda Prelude as collateral, took out a small business loan, and ventured into the business of residential painting.
And just like that, Kaser Painting, Inc. in Lincoln, Nebraska, was formed. Two and a half decades later — with Kaser Painting nearing the top of its game — Jay made the decision to expand the business into abrasive blasting and high-performance liquid painting. The Kasers purchased the 10,000 square foot building adjacent to the main office and acquired new equipment, and Kaser Blasting & Coatings made its debut in 2005.
In 2014, Kaser Blasting & Coatings added powder coating to its services.
“We saw a need in Lincoln, and we filled it,” says Jay.
The couple’s son, Jase Kaser, is the general manager of the blasting and coatings division, which offers abrasive blasting and high-performance liquid painting and powder coating services.
Growing Equipment Base
When Kaser Blasting & Coatings first started offering powder coating services, all pretreatment was performed in a single wash bay that was 10’ x 10’ x 25’; all curing happened in one small oven that was 10’ x 10’ x 25’. They recently added a large powder coating oven (12’ x 14’ x 30’).
“It really allowed us to step up our powder coating production,” says Jase, who added that, since their curing capacity suddenly outweighed their pretreatment capacity, they added a second, larger wash bay (12’ x 16’ x 30’) in 2019.
“Both ovens and both wash bays are fully functional and working overtime,” he says.
Kaser Blasting & Coatings currently has eight full-time shop employees, two seasonal shop helpers, and three operations staff.
For ferrous substrates, the shop blasts with steel grit, applies iron phosphate pretreatment, and powder coats with zinc-rich epoxy primer, as well as apply a super-durable polyester topcoat. For non-ferrous substrates that are mainly aluminum, they apply a five-stage pretreatment process resulting in a zirconium conversion coating, and powder coat with AAMA 2604 super durable polyester topcoat.
“This is our go-to process when it isn’t feasible for aluminum parts to be blasted, but still require great adhesion,” Jase says.
Adding New Services
With business doing well, Kaser Blasting & Coatings is investigating the possibility of adding new blast media to their roster, which currently includes crushed glass, steel grit, and aluminum oxide.
“We are also looking into the feasibility of a fully automated powder coating line,” Jase says. “That would really help streamline production for some of the larger-scale industrial projects that come through the door.”
He says that Kaser’s physical campus has evolved quite a bit over the years, and they are not done growing or changing.
“We’ll inevitably need more floor space for storage and equipment at some point,” Jase says. “Particularly if our workload demands the installation of a powder coating line.”
When it comes time to add new powder coating equipment, he says they will certainly also be looking into expanding our powder coating capabilities to include wood and other non-metal substrates.
“This is a side of the powder coating industry we haven’t experimented with yet,” Jase says. “But we suspect it will be well-received by our customer base.”
Working With Great Suppliers
Kaser works with a number of quality suppliers. They say their top sales representative and supplier is Bill Townsend with Calvary Industries, as they utilize their chemicals exclusively for our pretreatment processes. For powder coating, they mainly work with Cardinal, Diamond Vogel, PPG, and Tiger.
On the liquid coating side, Kaser has a long-standing relationship with Sherwin-Williams, and have recently been forging a new partnership the Tnemec. For blasting equipment, they utilize Clemco and Canfield Joseph.
“We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the quality products these vendors provide,” Jase says.
Jase has made sure that Kaser Blasting & Coatings has an attractive website with an active blog that is updated several times a week; he also posted on social media sites with plenty of great-looking photos that grab attention.
“Word of mouth has always been kind to Kaser,” Jase says. “We’re grateful to our customers for the positive reviews and recommendations they’ve given us — and spread around the community — over the years.”
Using Social Media
He says they started in 2018 to get more active on social media, which has helped widen our audience significantly. Chloe Leighty is the shop’s operations assistant as well as social media manager at Kaser, a rare position to find in the finishing and coating industry.
“Whether in person or digitally, our goal has always been to keep customers in the loop,” Jase says. “We want customers to be informed about their options and aware of the processes. The more transparent and communicative we are, the more satisfied our customers are likely to be.
Aside from communication and keeping their site up-to-date, Jase says the best way to keep and attract customers is to deliver great service and quality.
“A good product speaks for itself,” he says. “And that’s the reason Kaser customers keep coming back.”
