A splash of colour

Sheerline has invested over £1 million in a new, in-house powder coating plant, further enhancing its single site UK manufacturing facility.

Greg Grabski, Garnalex’s powder coating plant manager, said: “In the past, we have relied on third party suppliers to powder coat our products. This meant transporting 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 racked up mileage, increased the product’s carbon footprint, and introduced an extra opportunity for damage to occur. By investing in our own powder coating facility, housed next door to our Hybrex aluminium press, we have built in efficiencies and significantly reduced stock movement – taking up to five weeks out of the process involved in putting painted profiles into stock,” he continued.

“This added agility, ensures we can 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 will 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.”

Sheerline’s paint facility features a seven stage, chrome free pre-treatment system and a Gema Magic Cylinder fast colour change system.

“Our intention is to exceed the standards defined by Qualicoat as a matter of course,” explained Greg “Qualicoat is primarily a commercial specification standard, that is less appropriate for residential aluminium windows and doors. Visual acuity checks that are based on a 3m viewing distance may work for large commercial contracts but leave many homeowners understandably disgruntled.

“As we bed our new operation in, we will be looking to tighten these standards to offer a better service to customers and more peace-of-mind for homeowners.”

Sheerline is offering any dual colour combination, from a standard 12 colour range in just 10 days.

All Sheerline systems are available in a range of 12 colours. Pure white, anthracite grey and jet black in matt as well as hipca gloss white, alongside cream, agate grey, squirrel grey, pastel turquoise and chocolate brown and three anodised metallic effects.