Dublin Venue for Qualicoat

Members of Qualicoat recently met in Dublin City to review the status of the market and pending reviews of the standard.

Business was believed to be slowing a little but there seemed to be some good work in the pipeline for 2009. Members were a little more unsure about the status of the market in 2010 which may be a little slower.

On the membership front it was encouraging to see a further substantial systems company in the UK who have had their first inspection towards becoming a Qualicoat approved applicator. One member who lost their Qualicoat approved status some months ago was also in the review process to becoming approved once again. Bodycote, who undertakes the independent inspections, also referred to several other companies who expressed an interest in membership.

Feedback from the European working groups was discussed and it was encouraging that several UK & Ireland members were very active within these groups ensuring that the UK has a voice within Europe on the continuously developing standard.

Issue 12 of the Qualicoat Standard was due to be made available in early February 2009. The rewrite will include all the revisions to the standard which have been discussed and agreed since Issue 11 released in April 2006. The new issue will be available as a free download from the Qualicoat European website at http://www.qualicoat.net

Marketing feedback was encouraging. Website traffic to the Qualicoat UK & Ireland website had doubled during the year and whilst there still remained an emphasis on the membership area of the site the downloads page was the most visited. Members were also encouraged as the number of Qualicoat specifications was on the increase.

Current UK & Ireland news and information on architectural powder coating is frequently updated on the Qualicoat UK & Ireland website at www.qualicoatuki.org. Printed literature and telephone support is available from Qualicoat UK & Ireland Head Office in Birmingham on 0121 601 6746.