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- HISTORY
& FACTS ABOUT Vortex™
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-How long has your company been in this business,
and how did it get started?
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Vortex™ has only been around since the mid 90's . However, the parent company, Kott
Koatings, Inc. has been in the coatings industry
since the early 50's! Coatings have been our livelihood
for almost 6 decades. The Vortex™ material
was actually originally designed for a flooring
application that Kott Koatings was doing in Spain
in the early 90's. The original glazes that were developed
to coat the wall tiles were not durable enough for
the floors in the milk factory that was being brought
up to code. They needed a coating that was seamless,
extremely durable, not affected by moisture or mold, could be applied around their
pipes and tanks, could be completed in a weekend
and they could drive forklifts on it on Monday.
It took about a year to develop the Vortex™
material for this project. The application was so successful that Vortex™ eventually
spun off on its own and into the truck bed market as well. Of course, trucks are still an important part of our dealers business but portability
was one of the key issues of being able to do this
job. This is why we constantly say "Vortex™,
It's
Not Just For Trucks Anymore".
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-When did you first introduce the Vortex™ spray on
system, and what prompted your company to develop
it?
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Vortex™ was first introduced to the general public in mid 1999, and in the
years since we have grown to over 1600 dealers in the United
States and dozens of other countries. The primary
reason was to offer a super durable coating for
more than just trucks and which is portable to the
point of being a "Plug
and Spray" system. We just plug it into 115 VAC and spray
away. No heat rooms, No required spray booths, No
high pressure compressors, No 220 VAC lines!!
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-Has the Vortex™ system always been portable?
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YES! It was designed from the beginning to be truly
portable simply because our past 50+ years of coating
surfaces has always been "on
the job" applications, so we knew that's
where we wanted to be with the Vortex™ system,
and "PORTABLE MAKES IT POSSIBLE".
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-What are the product's key features?
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Three of the primary benefits of the Vortex™™
material are;
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1) Ease of Repair.
For example, if a truck has a sprayed in liner that
is damaged in an accident, typically any other spray
liner cannot simply be sprayed over again to make
such a repair. Vortex™ has a "self
bonding" or "cross linking" capability
to do just that, to bond to itself. This allows
easy repair of damaged areas, multiple colors, graphics
and special designs to be applied to itself.
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2) Quick curing.
Most other spray in liner materials dry fairly quickly,
typically several minutes to several hours and then
have to cure for up to a full day before exposure
to rain. With Vortex™ the initial dry is about
4 seconds and then it has to cure for 15 minutes
before exposure to rain or snow.
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3)
Oxidation is a major concern. Most liners,
when sprayed black will oxidize and form a white
milky haze over their surface. It looks like someone
tried to color it with chalk. Vortex™ doesn't oxidize with that milky look, it stays black.
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-What makes Vortex™ different from other spray
on systems?
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In
addition to the three features described above,
the following are also unique to Vortex™;
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1)
Portability, Portability, Portability! Some
others may claim to be portable, but then again,
the Queen Mary is technically portable, just not
very mobile. Vortex™ is the only truly portable
spray coating system, transportable to virtually
any location, even rooftops.
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2) The low pressure requirement is
another major, exclusive patent pending benefit
as well. Some liner companies claim "We
operate with only 8 CFM". Many people don't
know the difference between 8 cfm and 8 psi. To
obtain 8 cfm requires 10+ HP compressor, 220 VAC
and a building with a spray booth to handle it all.
Vortex™ needs only 8 psi, which means virtually
no overspray, no mess, no required spray booth and
the lowest material cost in the industry due partly
because of no waste when its sprayed. Additionally,
Vortex™ requires only 115 VAC to power it's
entire system. Oh Yeah! And it's
totally PORTABLE!
- -How many dealers do you now have, and what are the
benefits of becoming a Vortex™ dealer?
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have over 1600 dealers presently (2009) with a goal
to double this number in the next few years. The
benefits are very low entry costs and very low cost
of material. In the real estate market they say "LOCATION,
LOCATION, LOCATION", at Vortex™ we say
"COST OF MATERIAL, COST OF MATERIAL, COST OF
MATERIAL". It's not just what it takes to get into business,
it's
what it takes to stay in business that really counts.
Why spend $160+ for material to spray a truck when
you can do it for $90-$100 with Vortex™.
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- -What has been the initial response from dealers
and customers that have used the product?
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Probably the most common comment we receive is
"Wow, the Vortex™ system actually does what
you said it would".
When we ask what they mean, they all say they looked
at other systems and were told wonderful things like,
it was portable, easy to operate, low pressure, etc..
However, when they investigated further, they found
that none of it was true or had been greatly exaggerated.
The competitions idea of low pressure was 80-125 psi.
They weren't
told about the special "heat
room" that had to be built and maintained, or
the special spray booth that was needed, or the incredible
amount of waste created with the high pressure requirements, etc.,etc.
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- -What are the future plans or goals for Vortex™?
Where would you like to see this product in 5 years?
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Definitely continuing to do more than just trucks.
We have already moved into 1st place in
size and number of spray liner systems in the market
place. In 5 years we should be more than double our present size.
Although trucks will continue to be a significant portion
of our dealers business, our dealers are discovering
every day that the number of uses and applications
for our product is almost endless.
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- -Any additional comments?
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- Vortex™ continues to grow at the current rate of a new dealer every couple
of days. With the mobility to do trucks in the building,
or at the customers home or work, in addition to a
myriad of other applications, only adds to the demand
that customers have for convenience, mobility, and
for a truly quality product at a very reasonable price.
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