Throughout the year licenced members of QUALICOAT UK & Ireland hold regular meetings to network and review the ongoing work of the global QUALICOAT Specification. The Specification is constantly being updated as new technology and testing research becomes available, often these updates come from internal working groups of the global QUALICOAT Association based in Zurich.
The Summer meeting is also the time when, every two years, the Vice Chair steps up to become the Chair of the Association and I am delighted that my peers in the Association trust me in taking up the mantle from our outgoing Chair Angus Mackie. I’d like to thank Angus for all his hard work over the last few years. I’m also pleased to announce that Yasmin Panam, of Barley Chalu, has agreed to be my Vice Chair for the next two years.
The day before the members meeting we held our laboratory technicians training day which proved to be another great success, building on last years well attended event. Our equipment providers brought along various bits of equipment that allowed our member’s laboratory technicians to review their testing responsibilities in ensuring quality application and adherence to the QUALICOAT Specification. It is a condition of the licence that all laboratory technicians attend a day’s training every two years.
Some significant changes are coming to fruition within the UK & Ireland Association, the first regards the exclusivity of powder coat production. It has long been established in the Specification that all coatings completed by a licenced QUALICOAT applicator must meet the Specification. There is now an option for a powder coat applicator to coat non-approved, specialist powders on the same powder coating line, given strict requirements for doing so. This now opens up membership to applicators in the UK & Ireland who use these powders to join QUALICOAT.
It must be remembered that each licenced applicator member of QUALICOAT is inspected twice a year to ensure that the Specification is being followed so it is important to note any specialist powders being used that do not conform to the Specification. These inspections are undertaken by the independent test house IFO based in Germany. Any non-conformities can lead to a member losing their coating licence.
Membership of QUALICOAT is open to applicators, pretreatment suppliers and powder coating suppliers, each becoming licenced upon reviews and inspections of plant and output. The QUALICOAT label cannot be used by any company down the supply chain. This is to change and, for a small fee per year, downstream companies such as systems companies and fabricators who manufacture coated aluminium in architectural applications can apply to use the logo in conjunction with the Licence Number of their Applicator. It must be reiterated though that all powder coated material supplied by the company must be traceable back though to a licenced applicator. The third party licenced membership that this provides will be subject to twice year unannounced inspections to review provenance of coatings.
The membership also agreed that the Association will be present at the Zak Conference taking place in London in 2025 and taking a speaker opportunity to advise the facade community of the latest research into sustainable architectural powder coatings.
There is also development in the classification of the Qualicoat Natural Weathering site in Genoa in that it has now been scientifically proven to meet the exposure conditions required within BS EN 12206. This means that the requirements of the Qualicoat Specification and BS EN12206 for testing Alternative Pretreatments are now aligned.It is expected that QUALICOAT will release a Technical Information Sheet on this subject in the near future and this will be available on the UK & Ireland website.
The Association suggests that all UK & Ireland architectural powder coaters should become members of the Association to further raise sustainable coating in construction sector. None of us want to see failed powder coatings after a few years on the facade and only quality pretreatment of architectural aluminium and quality coatings can achieve this. It must be noted that a QUALICOAT Specification does not increase costs of powder coating, but ensures that the correct quality of coating is supplied for any given location.
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.
