Vortex Coatings is a Salina-based company that produces high-performance coatings for a wide range of industrial, agricultural and automotive industry applications, including coatings for truck bed liners to protect the inside of the bed and prevent objects from sliding around. Vortex sells the coating materials and the equipment used to apply the coatings.
When the company was acquired and moved to Salina, the original equipment design was also transferred. As the new owners began talking with their dealer network, they began identifying several areas of improvement on the applicator design for a simpler and more user-friendly process for those applying the coatings.
The Vortex team reached out to the Technology Development Institute at K-State to determine if the engineering staff would be able to assist them with developing new ideas to help improve the functionality of the application system.
“The team at K-State has been great to work with from our initial contact with them, said Peter Browning, general manager of Vortex Coatings. “They made the trip over to Salina to look at our operation and equipment and took the time to understand what we were trying to accomplish and the timeline that we were up against. We were able to engage engineering students to help with our virtual modeling, and then TDI was able to produce prototypes for testing and sales displays on-site in a very timely manner. Working with them has been a great experience for our organization.”
The new applicator design was completed and tested just in time for Vortex to take the prototypes to the world’s largest automotive tradeshow — SEMA in Las Vegas — to feature as a new product introduction for the company. The new applicators are much more ergonomic and allow material to flow and spray better than the previous systems.
This project was completed in support of the K-State 105 initiative, Kansas State University’s answer to the call for comprehensive economic growth and advancement solutions for Kansas.
The K-State Technology Development Institute in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering is a U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration University Center and received a grant from the Research and Entrepreneurship Federal Matching Grant Dollars Fund. TDI provides a broad range of engineering and business development services to both private industry and university researchers to advance the commercial readiness of new products or technologies.
