Single source for powder coating
By John Park-Davies, group managing director at Vertik-Al.
As the UK’s market leading independent powder coater, we colour for the country’s foremost extruders, manufacturers and providers of architectural aluminium and associated components.
This means we coat anything from a nut and bolt, through to a dual colour 6m insulated aluminium bar and all things in between.
This is quite an achievement when you consider that during 2023, we applied over 940 different colours, finishes and textures. Our customers can choose from more than 3,500 colours, and we use over 400 of those regularly.
Leading edge
In recent years, the coating sector has had to contend with some challenging lead times.
We have always offered one of the fastest turnaround services in the industry. Coupled with high quality and a competitive price, it has enabled us to maintain our leading edge since 1966. This is what we have built the business on, offering all our customers a single source for their powder coating needs.
And we deliver on this every day. During a typical 24-hour period, we receive or collect over 12,000 mill-finished aluminium items for powder coating. It’s then given to our experienced and skilled operations team to ensure that each item is planned in, sequenced across an approved period, programmed for production, pre-treated, coated, rolled, quality control checked and packed.
That happens every day, on-time, in full, with our customers having their coated metal back on an agreed date.
Continuous improvement
While there’s no denying our capacity when it comes to volumes and output, our customers must also be assured of our capability. We prove this through our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement.
Our investment plans have carried on regardless of external forces. Most significantly, we recently installed a new vertical powder coating booth. This was the fourth in a series of multi-million-pound planned investments which also include the installation of new horizontal powder coating plants and the upgrade of an existing horizontal line.
This advanced equipment give us the very best efficiencies in powder consumption and delivers superior quality coatings. With shorter colour changes and targeted application, and with less potential for cross contamination, output has greatly increased in line with expanding customer demands.
2024 investment
This year we are investing in areas that will enable us to further exceed customer expectations.
Our six-figure investment will include a new dry-off oven for our three horizontal lines. This will increase the flow from pre-treatment to the coating halls and with improved efficiency, insulation, and a built-in heat recovery system, the new oven will moderate some of the massive additional energy costs we are currently having to bear.
We are also taking advantage of having designers, engineers, and constructors on site, and we are upgrading our pre-treatment tanks for our horizontal lines at the same time, with minimum disruption to our production flow and customer’s needs.
Fully certified
If further proof of our unrivalled capability was needed, we have just been awarded the Qualicoat quality label for the 25th consecutive year, after passing our latest audit. This proves we conform with Qualicoat 2024 specifications, and as such are a Qualicoat approved coating applicator.
We are also one of a handful of members to offer Qualicoat Seaside class powder coating. This makes life more straightforward for our customers to specify their coating requirements. They know they can use us for all their coating needs regardless of where the manufactured product will be installed, be that an inner city, or an exposed coastal location.
We also remain the only architectural aluminium applicator in the UK and Ireland to hold the GSB International Master Seal for Approved Coater Aluminium after passing our audit in 2023 and have done so since 1994.
In a challenging market these achievements act to differentiate us from competing businesses, as new potential customers seek competent and reliable suppliers.
