SPECIALIZED TRAINING

Quality Control as the Driver of the ipcm® Academy Courses

Monica Fumagalli ipcm®

Quality control is one of the most delicate phases of the coating process: checking the suitability of the substrate, the coating system, and its application results is decisive in laying the foundations for a successful product that meets both customer and end user needs. Indeed, the courses organised by ipcm® Academy were launched in 2011 precisely in order to deal with these themes and train QC professionals, the lack of whom was a deeply felt issue in our industry back then. Subsequently, the Academy’s training programme has expanded to include other equally fundamental process steps; however, knowledge of the regulations, the most suitable tools, and the tests to be carried out to check a product’s compliance to specifications remain among the topics that most interest our students. We talked about why this happens with Pasquale Roberti, an expert in quality control solutions for the appearance, colour, and physical properties of paints and plastics and, since 2016, a lecturer at ipcm® Academy.

You started collaborating with ipcm® Academy in 2016, as an expert in quality control solutions. How do you deal with this topic in a vocational training course?

QC of liquid coatings and dry parts involves a very wide range of tests and inspections, from colour and appearance control to the verification of a variety of physical properties. Therefore, the aim of the course is to provide basic theoretical and scientific information to enable participants to understand the principles behind the various types of checks and choose the right approach to every problem. Even though I work for a company that produces measuring instruments, I try to be as neutral as possible and avoid giving information with even the slightest commercial purpose.

The courses organised by ipcm® Academy have always been “hybrid”, with both a theoretical part and practical tests. The same is true for your lessons. Do you think this is the ideal approach to train new coating technicians?

I certainly consider it the best possible

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Pasquale Roberti.

approach to provide future technicians with both theoretical and practical foundations and to give them a complete overview of the activities they will be carrying out. As far as my course is concerned, it would be complicated and possibly unproductive to offer only theoretical information without giving to the students the opportunity to use some instruments and try them out directly on samples.

How important was your university education in your personal development? Do you think it is essential to attend the ipcm® Academy courses, or can they be easily attended by both graduates and non-graduates?

The ipcm® Academy courses are not conceived for university graduates only, but they are rather specially calibrated for an audience with an upper secondary education. Very often, our participants are technicians who already work in paintshops and carry out their tasks on a daily basis according to their established procedures. Our aim is to qualify these resources, give them the opportunity to expand their horizons, and help them look beyond their everyday lives. Even those who do not have a diploma can easily follow the courses because they are comprehensive, well structured, and easy to understand. The university background of the lecturers, including myself, is a further benefit that can be useful when there is a need to go deeper into topics upon the students’ request.

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Students during a session of ipcm® Academy training courses.

Quality control of treated products is one of the most delicate phases of the entire coating process. What skills does it require and how difficult is it to manage in the best possible way?

We all know that QC requires trained resources who have a full view of the problems faced on a daily basis in a factory. In order to know the types of controls and methods required, their limitations, the meaning of tolerances, and the reasons for KO results, but also be able to suggest a corrective or preventive solution and sometimes even to have direct contact with customers or suppliers, manage documentation, and so on, one certainly has to be a qualified professional aiming for constant refreshing and training.

What will the official recognition of the new profession of Industrial Surface Finishing Process Technologist entail in terms of training of new coating operators and within production plants?

The aim of our courses is exactly as described above, that is, to qualify resources who will be able to manage production and control activities with a global vision and a modern approach to problem solving. If we add to this the official certification of the Lombardy Region, this can only be a proper recognition for a professional role that is still considered almost artisan and is often still developed within companies.

Why it is useful to enrol in the courses of ipcm® Academy?

We live in a time when the world of work needs specialists. Unfortunately, we see very often that the human resources available are not sufficiently trained or, on the contrary, they are over-specialised, so that firms have difficulty finding the right people for the jobs they need to fill. Enrolling in the ipcm® Academy courses guarantees the opportunity to get qualified for some of the sectors for which Italy has been a leading player at the European level for decades, such as industrial coating and surface finishing.