By Chris Mansfield – QUALICOAT Chair
QUALICOAT UK & Ireland Chair
We often refer to labels that quickly identify brands, products or services in our daily lives. Often these labels set an expectation of the product and possibly more importantly the quality or service that we expect from past experience. Across Europe the QUALICOAT label has now been synonymous with high quality architectural powder coating for almost four decades and is now widely specified across the Globe.
The label, which can only be used by licensed members of the QUALICOAT Association, is registered worldwide. Members of the Association include powder manufacturers, pre-treatment systems suppliers and powder coating applicators. These three main membership groups form the vertical integration required to precisely specify both product and processes that offer the best quality coating for architectural aluminium products used in either commercial or residential applications. Companies found to be using the QUALICOAT label who are not licensed members of the Association are asked to remove the registered logo from all their market communications.
Forming the backbone of the label is the QUALICOAT Specification which identifies not only the product and testing requirements, but detailed parameters for the complete process of powder coating. This Global Specification is updated in real time following extensive research carried out by its members, all members are regularly third party inspected to ensure they meet the Specification. For all licensed powder coaters unannounced full day plant inspections takes place twice yearly.
The problem with any national quoted standard, such as the powder coating standard BS EN 12206, is that it can be claimed, but often not substantiated without physical checking of the product supplied, or indeed a process review of the supplier. As a customer, how can you be sure you are getting the quality you specify? Most of you reading this right now know that all quality powder coatings consist of a robust pre-treatment followed by the application of powder coating, but, can you make a visit to every supplier in a contract prior to placing an order to check that this is being done? Don’t let a competitive coating price be the deciding factor, reducing the quality of the powder coating, or worse, still eliminating the pre-treatment stage which cannot be seen on the finished product.
The Global QUALICOAT label exists to offer quality architectural powder coatings to all specifiers. All reputable architectural powder coaters in the UK & Ireland are now licensed by QUALICOAT UK & Ireland and work to the QUALICOAT Specification. The Specification is also freely available, without cost, for all to review from QUALICOAT’s own website.
As you would expect from the very name of the Association, consistency in supplying quality is paramount for applicator licence holders. The secret to quality is only achieved by regular monitoring of the powder coating process through the Member’s own test laboratory and this is where the laboratory technicians are crucial in the powder coating process.
Over the last few years the Association has made it mandatory that all QUALICOAT licence holder’s own laboratory technicians attend a refresher training course at least once every two years. This ensures that the latest developments in the QUALICOAT Specification for production monitoring and production testing is implemented and maintained. This, in turn, ensures compliance with the Specification when unannounced applicator plant inspections are undertaken every six months. Passing these quality audits ensures that an applicator maintains their licence to offer the QUALICOAT Specification. For specifiers, this is a key reason why they specify QUALICOAT for all their architectural powder coating. The annual training meetings are organised by IFO who are QUALICOAT UK & Ireland’s independent test house located in Germany.
The last training day, took place in Daventry in July 2024 with a record number of over sixty laboratory technicians in attendance. Testing equipment was made available for the testing of chrome-free analysis including photometers and a hand held x-ray spectrometer. Members came from all over the UK and Ireland to discuss the Specification updates and listen to technical presentations. Brought to the event was a Q-SUN Xe-1 xenon arc chamber which reproduces the damage caused by full-spectrum sunlight and rain. In use over a few days or weeks, the Q-SUN test equipment can reproduce the damage that occurs over months or years in the harshest of environments.
With several new powder coating applicators receiving their licences recently and further powder coating applicators currently undergoing training and review by IFO, the vast majority of quality architectural powder coaters in the UK & Ireland are now licensed to supply to the QUALICOAT Specification and carry the prestigious QUALICOAT label.
In the Association’s pursuit of offering the highest quality architectural powder coating, it has launched QUALICOAT 3.0. Over the last decade, as we use more recycled aluminium, the Association has recognised that poor quality recycled content does affect the sustainability of the powder coating. A QUALICOAT 3.0 specification targets the aluminium processor to ensure that their output of extrusion or sheet aluminium reaches strict tolerances for both process and contaminant content to ensure the longest possible surface coating life expectancy. This specification is now live and open to specifiers to use.
The up-to-date QUALICOAT Specification is freely available for download via the UK & Ireland Association website, qualicoatuki.org and the website offers an up-to-date list of licensed UK and Ireland Powder Suppliers, Pre-treatment Suppliers and Applicators including the applicators who carry the Seaside class accreditation. Telephone support is available from QUALICOAT UK & Ireland Head Office in the Midlands on 0330 240 9735, the Association can also be followed on Twitter @Qualicoatuki or on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/qualicoat-uk-&-ireland.