QUALICOAT Your Powder Coating Consultant

With the majority of architectural powder coating applicators across the UK & Ireland now powder coating to the QUALICOAT Specification, the question is, why are specifiers and the fenestration supply chain increasingly turning to QUALICOAT as a preferred coating specification?

National standards for powder coating exist, in the UK and EU, in the form of BS EN 12206-1:2021 ‘Paints and varnishes. Coating of aluminium and aluminium alloys for architectural purposes. Coatings prepared from thermosetting coating powder.’ Recently updated, the standard offers a minimum specification that architectural powder coaters should be coating too and includes both the pretreatment process and the powder coating process in detail. Alongside the processes are a range of destructive tests that the finished coating must pass. When it comes to prestigious commercial projects a powder coating Consultant is often employed by the architect or client to ensure that the process laid down in BS EN 12206 standard is undertaken correctly and that output actually meets the standard.

The Consultant is also expected to check the source of the chosen pretreatment system supplier and the source of the powder manufacturer to ensure that quality suppliers are being used. With the correct processes in place, as laid down by BS EN 12206, a quality finish to the standard is expected to be supplied for the given project. The Consultant, being an independent third party, charges the client for their services on top of the costs for the profile coatings.

The current BS EN 12206 consists of 24 pages and was last updated and released in 2021 with input from members of QUALICOAT. This latest update the BS EN 12206 once again closely aligns with the current QUALICOAT Specification and costs £198 from the BSI bookshop. The QUALICOAT Specification is over 100 pages with appendices, was last updated on 1st July 2023 and already has update sheets which are applicable from 1st January 2024. It is a global specification and is free to download from the Association website.

So what is different with the QUALICOAT specification, do we still need the Consultant to check that the procedures are still being followed?

With more than four times the numbers of pages, no, the QUALICOAT specification does not fill this space with elaborate pictures and sketches, instead the process of powder coating and testing is much more detailed and descriptive. The process is quantifiable with timings and reporting that logs each shift within the powder coating applicator.

The independent QUALICOAT applicator must only use QUALICOAT approved suppliers, again from independent suppliers who have had their systems checked for quality.

So who is in control of this detailed specification? Simply put, the members themselves who are formed into working groups, each researching and working on elements of the process and once they reach a conclusion, put forward proposals for approval and publish their updates within the Specification that all members are bound to follow.

So how do we know that members of QUALICOAT follow this much extended and enhanced Specification? Each member carries a licence which is subject to an independent test house visiting each member, unannounced, twice yearly to check that the Specification is being followed, in the UK & Ireland this is conducted by IFO from Germany. Non-compliance can, and does, lead to a member having their licence withdrawn. In 2023 all 26 applicator members in the UK & Ireland have passed both inspections and licence holders can be viewed on the QUALICOAT UK & Ireland website.

With all this process detail and third party inspection, a QUALICOAT Specification must be more expensive? No, in fact with less installation failures experienced by members of the Association a QUALICOAT Specification costs no more than a reputable applicator coating to BS EN 12206.

As a specifier it is up to you to decide if you still need an independent consultant to check that you are indeed getting powder coating that meets a QUALICOAT Specification. The membership of QUALICOAT is made up of enthusiastic companies who want to supply the best quality coating they can, hence why they join the Association and willingly open their businesses up for third party inspection. Furthermore, any member would gladly help a specifier who seeks specification assistance, it is all on our website.

The current QUALICOAT Specification is 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.