Bringing colour in house

Garnalex has completed work on a new, in-house, £1million powder coating facility. We talk to Greg Grabski, Garnalex powder coating plant manager, to find out more.

GT: How will the new plant improve lead times and quality control?

GG: In the past, we have relied on third party suppliers to powder coat our products. Traditionally this has meant transporting our mill finished profiles from our warehouse to the powder coaters, waiting for them to process it, then collecting it back, before it’s put into stock.

This obviously racks up mileage, increases the products carbon footprint, and introduces an extra opportunity for damage to occur. By investing in our own powder coating facility, housed next door to our Hybrex aluminium press we’ve built in efficiencies and significantly reduced stock movement – taking up to five weeks out of the process involved in putting painted profiles into stock.

This added agility will ensure we are able to fulfil customers’ orders on time and in full, as well as giving us direct control over quality checks, with the ability to rectify any issues in hours rather than weeks. I come from the automotive industry – where I gained my experience in running quality obsessed painting operations.

I’ll be using these skills and the higher quality expectations that automotive supply chains work to, to embed the correct processes and procedures into our operation.

GT: The Garnalex extrusion halls are state of the art – is this reflected in the technology for the new powder coating plant?

GG: Anyone who knows Roger Hartshorn’s track record, knows that he invests in the best kit available.

We’ve installed one of the very best seven stage chrome free pre-treatment systems and chosen a Gema Magic Cylinder fast colour change system at the heart of our painting plant. Fully integrated into our own GarnerSys software, the powder coating plant is also physically adjacent to our incredibly efficient aluminium press – optimising our production flow.

GT; What advantage does the new powder coating facilities give to your customers?

GG: As one of only a handful of systems companies that extrude and paint themselves, our facilities put Sheerline fabricators at a distinct advantage. However, our truly unique edge in the market is how our in-house painting capabilities combine with our unique Thermlock thermal breaks. The way our Sheerline systems are designed enables profiles to be rolled quickly to meet each customer order – enabling us to offer any dual colour combination, from our standard 12 colour range in just 10 days. This agility gives our customers the confidence to use colour and service levels as a key selling aid against rival systems.

GT: How important is colour for your customers?

GG: As we are still a relatively new systems house, having launched our Classic system in 2020 it’s been interesting to see the split of colour sales emerge across our ranges. Alongside our standard, Traditional and Character colour ranges, we’ve also seen growing demand for bespoke colours, driven by homeowners wanting to match everything from their kitchen cabinets, to local stone or an architects vision. Our on-site facilities let us turn round bespoke colour jobs in an average of just 15 days!

GT: What’s your colour offer?

GG: All Sheerline systems are available in our full range of 12 colours. Four Traditional colours, Pure White, Anthracite Grey and Jet Black in matt as well as Hipca Gloss White, alongside a range of five Character colours; Cream, Agate Grey, Squirrel Grey, Pastel Turquoise and Chocolate Brown and three anodised metallic effects. As our bespoke service is so efficient and only adds a week to orders, we expect this to help customers keep up with most colour trends.

GT: What are the most popular colours for Sheerline?

GG: Anthracite Grey is still the main choice for aluminium sales, along with white and black – which seems to be making a resurgence, driven by the markets appetite for art deco inspired ‘heritage’ products at the moment. As to future trends, my marketing colleagues tell me to keep an eye on subtle greys hues, with hints of lavender or sage, but I’ll leave the crystal ball gazing to them!