By Chris Mansfield – QUALICOAT Chair
A lot has been said about coating quality when it comes to QUALICOAT, but how does the Association justify these claims? It begins with Member’s willingness to ‘be the best’ in all that they do, which impacts quality, in addition to cutting edge research and education within Member’s businesses and the Association. Then there are mandatory, twice yearly, unannounced third party inspections.
British Standards are well known and often used across the globe to recognise a minimum ‘standard’ for manufacture or service. By specification of a standard you are asking for a product or service that should fulfil its duty in use in any industry. However, as a specifier you rely on the credibility of the supplier to ensure they maintain the standard by checking and testing of products and processes. The same can be said for many other global standards.
If a supplier fails to meet the level of specification within a given product, often a failed product can be replaced, but what happens when this cannot be achieved? Usually lengthy legal challenges take place. Citing architectural powder coating as an example, it is not possible simply to remove the product and replace. Often the final position for such installations is somewhat of a compromise. As we all know, it is better to get it right to start with, which is the intention for any specifier.
Turning to third party accreditation, which is a process that demonstrates compliance, protecting both the specifier and the client, is this not something that we should be insisting on?
Simply put, third party accreditation invites an independent person, or company, the right to undertake a process and product review to ensure the product or service meets the quoted specifications. The result gives the client confidence that the product will fulfil their specified needs whilst the supplier is also qualified as a supplier of quality product. Currently this is offered by a consultant who’s additional cost is added to the project.
The Association QUALICOAT has placed third party accreditation at the heart of their architectural powder coating specification. In the UK & Ireland the specification is managed by ‘QUALICOAT UK & Ireland’ with the association based in the Midlands. Currently there are 27 licensed coating Members across the UK & Ireland together with additional licensed Members who supply pretreatment systems and powder suppliers.
So what is the QUALICOAT Specification and how does it differ from the BS EN 12206 standard for powder coating? First of all it is fair to say that the much smaller BS EN standard is largely covered by the much larger and more up to date QUALICOAT Specification. The difference is that the QUALICOAT Specification is far more precise in giving details of process and process control offering a far better consistency in quality output.
So, who writes this more detailed specification? Surprisingly it is the very members themselves acting in working groups consisting of members across the globe. Why? In using industry leaders in conjunction with independent test houses puts the Association at the cutting edge of of research into sustainable architectural powder coating. All updates to the Specification are a result of detailed research by dedicated working groups.
We have all said at sometime ‘put your money where your mouth is’, well this is what QUALICOAT members do on a regular basis. They not only sign up to a more onerous QUALICOAT Specification when they become members, but also agree to inviting in and paying for unannounced independent audits from a third party company. Failing an inspection can mean the loss of QUALICOAT licence status where the coater must remove all reference to QUALICOAT in their business dealings. All current QUALICOAT licence holders can be checked on the main qualicoat.net website and on the qualicoatuki.org website.
IFO from Germany are QUALICOAT UK & Ireland’s nominated independent test house who are often in the UK to undertake twice yearly unannounced inspection of coating members.
Each QUALICOAT member prides themselves on offering high quality coating, so any QUALICOAT licence holder coater not only signs up to offer the enhanced specification but also carries credibility in one of the worlds most wide reaching specification in building construction.
But, it doesn’t stop there, to ensure vertical integration with quality powder producers and aluminium pretreatment systems providers, both these supply markets have to become QUALICOAT licence holders to be able to supply licensed architectural powder coaters and follow a similar third party inspection regime. Quality products supplied to licensed powder coaters who offer possibly the best powder coating finish specifiable.
In the Associations pursuit in 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, Pretreatment 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.
