Technical Finishing Services produces wood finish samples & wood finish sampling programs for the furniture and kitchen cabinetry manufacturers. We accurately reproduce your wood finishes in a very professional manner for you to show your customers the selection of colors available on your manufactured wood products. The wood finish samples we produce for our customers, range from the simple, consumer one-step, interior wiping stains and exterior house & deck stains used in the retail markets to the antiquated, hand-glazed wood finishes in the kitchen cabinetry business to the high-end, multi-step, hand-rubbed, wood finishes that are applied to exotic wood species, used in the construction of fine office furniture.

 

The History Technical Finishing Services was founded in 1988 as a division of a 100+ year old, family owned company, Colwell Industries, Inc. which is the world's largest sampling company. The start up idea for this business was prompted by inquiries from current customers of Colwell Industries other manufacturing divisions, that were expressing a desire to out source their wood finish sampling. A 16,000 square foot building, located in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was secured to house the new endeavor. Insistence on quality standards, fair pricing, on-time delivery, and an ability to produce quality sampling programs have generated our steady growth.

 

The Competition The biggest obstacle facing TFS was convincing our potential customers that we could reproduce their wood finishes accurately and be a cost effective alternative versus producing these samples themselves in-house. Great amounts of time and effort were exerted in this bold attempt. We specifically geared the manufacturing departments to achieve maximum efficiency and color control throughout the manufacturing process of the wood finish samples. Specialized manufacturing equipment was designed and built to offer our customers special edge treatments and a variety of "looks" for their samples. We like to think of ourselves as an extension of each of our customers own finishing departments and attempt to participate with them in the new challenges facing these industries. We continue to strive for improvement in quality and service. Our main objective has always been to help our customers maintain a quality looking wood finish sample that is very consistent in finish appearance and color. We also like to participate with our customers in offering new and unique ways to display their wood finish samples. We can produce all your required finish samples. If you need samples that can be hung on an existing showroom display, fit into a box for your display cabinet, slid into catalog pages for your dealers, single samples for the interior designer's or customer's use, or fan decks for use by general contractors and architects, we know we can help you fulfill any of your requirements. Our customer's have benefited with cost savings and color consistency by having TFS produce all their wood finish sampling needs as a single source for your sales and merchandising tools.

 

The Finishers Our experience with wood finishes shows in the products we produce. Our company's foundation was built on a core of talented & experienced wood finishers who formulate your colors from scratch and hand finish the wood to your specifications. Each of our finishers has a minimum of 19 years experience at TFS. Color matching your wood finishes is their specialty. Most of our topcoating is produced with a catalyzed lacquer, but we can simulate UV (ultra-violet) finishes and can produce water-based finishes as well. We have made wood finish samples using varnish, polyester & polyurethane interior, exterior and marine-grade coatings on wood. We continue to explore the new technology's offered today. We have designed & built custom UV & water-based finishing lines for other divisions within the Colwell Industries group of companies. In the time-honored business of finishing wood, TFS believes in exploring and investing in the new technology's and we know the benefits of these opportunities will continue to improve the quality and efficiency in our sampling business.

 

The Substrate Here at TFS, wood and wood finish samples are our livelihood. We specifically select only the finest veneers and solid lumber that are to be used in your sampling products. We not only are in the business of matching the wood finish, but want to show the representative wood characteristics as well. All face veneers are selected by our finishers, looking for qualities in the logs that will represent your product. Our veneered and balanced panels use the finest cores and glues available for stability and machine ability. We offer different core sizes to give you the dimensions you are looking for. Our solid lumber is hand picked from finest sources available. Each sample we produce always have the backs and edges sealed to provide integrity in your samples. A state-of-the-art sanding process is used in all our finishing operations. As with any finish, the quality of the final appearance starts with preparation and quality substrates.

 

The Service We fully realize that a wood sample produced by us can be your customer's first impression about your wood manufactured quality. Each sample is individually inspected to assure a quality presentation and a commercially acceptable color match. We offer you a wide range of alternatives for processing your samples. TFS can also process your supplied laminate & thermofoil panels into sampling. We take care of everything including painting all edges & backs, printing & applying labels, inserting your wood finish samples into poly sleeves or catalog binder pages, collating and building fan decks and any other specific packaging or displaying situations. To help our customers maintain current inventory quantities and help ease budget constraints, TFS offers a just-in-time program. TFS will maintain inventories of your finish samples and ship to your manufacturing plant or your ad stock distribution vendor on an as needed basis. With the JIT program, we utilize the efficiency of the internet & custom build password protected web pages for each of our customers. This enables our clients, when their time permits, to view & track the status of their inventory, past usage data, finish & color codes, and shipping & invoicing data.

 

The Process Our specialized equipment for processing the finished products into wood finish samples is second to none. We offer a variety of edge treatments and sample chip sizes. Your samples can have a variety of packaging options from labels to sleeves. Large runs or small, TFS will create the sampling tools you need, with the quality you expect and on time delivery. Why not find out why the majority of the largest office and kitchen cabinetry manufacturers have TFS as their wood finish sample supplier. Cost is important too, and TFS usually produces for about the same cost or less, versus producing them in house. If you are in a wood products business and want to make that first impression of quality finished wood products, we deliver. If you have ever lost a sale due to not having a wood finish sample available, or your finish sample was not a quality presentation needed to secure that order, or you had problems with a finish sample not replicating your target color, please contact us for to learn more about the possibilities of improving your company's sales aid tools. If you would like a more in depth look at TFS, please take the plant tour, which details our manufacturing process for a typical wood finish sample for office furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturers. If you would like to see some displays that we have built over the years for coating manufacturer's, click here. You can contact us by email or call the plant at (763) 571-3902 between 8 - 4:30 central time.   © 2001-2010 Technical Finishing Services, Inc.

 

Technical Finishing Services, Inc. 7541 Commerce Lane NE Fridley, MN 55432 Phone: (763) 571-3902