‘25 Years of Qualicoat’

Qualicoat is a quality label organisation committed to maintaining and promoting the quality of coating on aluminium and its alloys for architectural applications.

Back in 1986 several national associations representing coaters of architectural aluminium, formed a quality label organisation called Qualicoat. The organisations goal was to raise and standardise the level of powder coating quality across Europe, laying down minimum standards applying to the industry.

In 2001 Qualicoat UK & Ireland association was formed, with two coaters and four powder coat manufacturers, in order to further the interests of businesses in the UK. Today the association in the UK stands at 28 members and with several new companies seeking licences, the number should be over 30 by the end of 2011. The Qualicoat quality label is a product certification scheme, Qualicoat has granted general licenses to national associations, such as Qualicoat UK & Ireland, to issue these certificates and to undertake regular inspection the licensed plants.

Powder coating is the most popular finish for many architectural features found on today’s modern architecture. It comes in a very wide range of colours and textures and on the surface can look excellent once installed. As a building is ‘Only as good as its’ foundations’, what lurks in and under the powder coat finish matters a great deal. There are standards that specify the application of powder coating for architectural finishes and the majority of powder coaters in the UK and Ireland follow these closely and these are the minimum standards which should be achieved in all cases. Qualicoat is a standard which encompasses all the current European standards, improves on them, insists that the output be checked by an independent body and licences. Specifying the Qualicoat standard has a ‘no cost implication’ as member companies realise the benefit of getting the product right first time and for extended life expectancy. This obviously reduces remedial costs which in turn pay for the slight increase in cost of the finish. They say Beauty is only skin deep” (Sir Thomas Overbury - 1613) but, by specifying QUALICOAT you can be assured that the finish will be maintained for years to come.

Member companies consist of not only the powder coating companies, but also include the powder manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, consultants and pre-treatment chemical suppliers, which make up the complete supply chain. Bringing these specialists together in one networking organisation allows all standards to be discussed and improved which will ultimately improve both the quality and durability of the Qualicoat label.

‘No cost implication’ means just that, members who have joined Qualicoat in many cases have needed to add new machinery and systems in order to work to the higher standard, but the benefit to the members and the end users is an improvement in quality and durability; this in turn reduces the rejection rate during coating and also the chance of failure in the durability of the finish thereby offsetting the increased initial cost. In simple terms – Qualicoat is a more controlled finish which is of a higher standard than normally supplied.

Companies in many countries have become licensees as Qualicoat has grown across all continents. Through its efforts over the past 25 years, Qualicoat has played a key role in assuring the quality of architectural aluminium, during this time aluminium industry has been represented on the Qualicoat committees from the outset, ensuring an exchange of ideas and information between coaters and producers of semi-finished aluminium systems and hardware. Licensed plants have a distinct competitive edge over their rivals, customers and specifiers receive coated products that meet clearly defined quality and performance criteria. Licensed coating plants who fail to meet the requirements can lose their licence. Independent inspection is performed by laboratories recognised by Qualicoat and accredited to ISO 17025, in the UK & Ireland the nominated test house is Exova. These laboratories and the inspectors work together in their association known as Qualisurfal.

Qualicoat’s mission is to provide best practice rules to obtain a good quality coating on aluminium. To achieve this goal, Qualicoat’s is committed to:

1. Establishing specifications for processes, products and tests to be used by the coating plants.
2. Developing and improving these specifications.
3. Granting licenses to coating plants that apply for the quality label.
4. Testing and approving chemicals and coating products to be used.
5. Monitoring the correct application of the specifications in licensed plants.

To celebrate the 25 years work of the association both Qualicoat and ESTAL (The Association for European Surface Treatment on Aluminium) are holding a Congress in Munich on 27th and 28th of October 2011. Further information can be found on the Qualicoat websites.

Current news and information on architectural powder coating is frequently updated on the Qualicoat UK and Ireland website at www.qualicoatuki.org. The European website offers the complete specification which can be found at www.qualicoat.net. Printed literature and telephone support is available from Qualicoat UK & Ireland’s Head Office in Birmingham on 0121 601 6746.