Technical

By: Joanne Bednar, Lab and Quality Manager

Mixing pigments together to develop a particular color is as much an art as it is science. Formulating a color for a particular application and desired performance on a specific substrate dramatically increases the challenge in creating the desired product. A company’s technical engineering capabilities will define the quality of color dispersions and performance it can provide each of those markets.

Most of us know what would happen if we sat on a freshly painted park bench or leaned on a freshly painted wall. Coatings, like paints - and also like mulch colorants - need time to dry to “lock onto” the surfaces they are coating. The coatings will adhere to any surface that makes contact with them when they are wet – including the surfaces of droplets of rainwater! Once dry, even if water is later poured on them, the chemical bonds that secure them to a surface remain intact unless chemically broken or physically rubbed off.

By: Joanne Bednar, Lab & Quality Manager

A warranty is an obligation or guarantee that a product or service is as it is factually stated. That being said, what does Amerimulch warranty?

By: Robert Rynk, Agricultural Engineering, State University of New York (SUNY) Cobleskill and Richard Buggeln, Center for Industrial Services, University of Tennessee

Introduction
During the latter months of 2008, with much assistance from Amerimulch, we conducted a survey to better explain the factors that lead to fires at mulch and compost production facilities. We also wanted to learn how to successfully deal with a fire when one does occur. In short, we are searching for the “Do’s and Don’ts” of fire prevention and response.

As users of mulch colorant you have probably pondered the best way to store your colorant inventory. Here are some frequently asked questions and recommendations regarding colorant storage and maintenance.

By: Vince Hundt, Company Co-Founder
Rotochopper, Inc.

Landscape mulch is getting to be a more sophisticated and complex subject every year. Twenty years ago mulch was simply bark from trees. It was what customers got when they asked for mulch. It was cheap and plentiful, like the diesel fuel used to haul it. Then, in 1990 in Cleveland, AmeriMulch invented the idea of colored mulch. That changed everything.

By: Tom Kurtz, Kurtz Bros.

Kurtz Bros. is a third generation family business located in Ohio that began as a commercial topsoil company. In the late 1970s the company began to focus on organic recycling and mulch production. In the early 1990s, Kurtz Bros. was one of the pioneering companies in the colored mulch business and eventually sold Amerimulch to ChromaScape.

Accidents Happen. Too often, we act as though they will not, and we are not prepared for what we need to do when they do occur. Good businesses that survive over the long haul do not pretend that accidents will never happen to them; they instead take the proper precautions to do what they can to prevent things from going wrong, and they are prepared with the things that they will need in times of trouble – close by and accessible quickly when needed.

Based on the industry we service and the several trucking companies we use, it is inevitable that some shipments will be damaged. In an effort to protect your company, as well as ours, we recommend the following steps be taken should your order be damaged.

1. You can refuse the entire shipment; however, this is not always the most practical option.

By: Richard Buggeln, University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services