Summer’s here. And while everyone else is winding down . . . we’re opening up the classroom (not the kind with desks and pop quizzes).

We’re talking about pretreatment. Finishing. The stuff that makes or breaks your coating, and that most people have had to figure out on their own.

Paint Line University (PLU) is a free, on-demand pretreatment training resource built by CPI’s Solution Squad. And it exists because there’s never really been a structured way to learn this stuff.

The knowledge on most lines lives with one or two people. They figured it out by being there long enough. And when the rest of the team doesn’t have that same foundation . . . you start seeing the same patterns:

→ Equipment is purchased before the process requirements are fully understood, and then you’re engineering around limitations for years.

→ Early pretreatment and surface prep choices get made in a knowledge vacuum.

→ Changes happen on the line, but the “why” behind the process doesn’t travel with them.

And in a niche industry like ours . . . there aren’t a lot of places to turn. So people MacGyver it. Figure it out on the fly. Get resourceful. (Which is honestly impressive, but it shouldn’t be the only option.)

That’s why we focus so much on building understanding early, not just selecting equipment or chemistry.

PLU is a full curriculum—structured, on-demand, and designed so anyone can go through it. New hires who’ve never seen a titration (there’s a First Day on the Job series built just for that). The maintenance tech who keeps getting pulled into chemistry conversations. The supervisor who makes process decisions but has never had anyone actually walk them through why the chemistry works the way it does. Everyone gets the same foundation.

And it was built by the people who actually do this work. The Solution Squad–same team that runs line audits, builds custom chemistry, and solves the problems they’re teaching about. They’ve seen the problems you’re dealing with . . . probably more than once.

So we took everything they know and put it into one place.

Here’s what’s inside:

1. Online Learning: The curriculum covers everything from pretreatment chemistry and finishing system design to cleaning and rinsing, process control, troubleshooting, cost-saving strategies, and a whole lot more. All of it is on-demand. Go through it at your own pace, on your own schedule. Rewatch the stuff that matters most. Skip what you already know. Come back to it when something on the line changes and you need a refresher.

2. Exclusive Community: Meet, share, and brainstorm with industry colleagues. PLU isn’t a solo experience. There’s a community of engineers, pretreatment specialists, and finishing professionals, all in there asking questions, sharing what’s working, talking through problems in real time. Have something going on with your process you can’t explain? Post it. Chances are someone in there has already dealt with it and knows exactly what to look for.

3. Solution Squad Access: Got something your team can’t crack? The Solution Squad holds online office hours inside PLU. Direct access. Real answers. No ticket system. No chatbot. The same people with 50+ years of combined field experience who build custom chemistry and take on the problems nobody else wants to touch. If your team is stuck on something specific, these are the people who’ve probably already seen it.

And it doesn’t matter where you are in your career. Just starting out and trying to make sense of it all? It’s in there. Been doing this for years and want to go deeper on something specific? Also in there. Just want to know that when the next weird problem shows up, you’ve got somewhere to go? That’s the whole point.

Oh, and it’s free. The courses, the community, the access. 😉

School’s out everywhere else. At PLU . . . we’re just getting started!

Register for Paint Line University

Want to talk to someone first? The Solution Squad is here. Get in touch.