QUALICOAT UK & Ireland Association is celebrating its 25-year anniversary as a licensing body to help expand the powder coating applicators technical specification.

The UK and Irish trade body was started following the formation of several national associations encompassing powder coaters of architectural profiles under the QUALICOAT banner in 1986. Its goal – to raise and standardise the quality of powder coating across Europe – laid down rules for the industry.

25 Year Anniversary

New members across Europe have since, directly or indirectly, joined QUALICOAT. The aluminium industry was represented by delegates on the organization’s committees from the outset. This ensured information sharing among wrought aluminium producers and coaters.

Today, QUALICOAT membership extends beyond Europe with associations in Australia and South Africa and producers of coating materials in Asia, America and Europe. Membership is open to all national associations of coaters, the European Aluminium Association and producers of paints, powders, dyes and chemical products.

Quality Label

QUALICOAT is a quality label organisation committed to maintaining and promoting the quality of lacquering, painting and coating on aluminium and its alloys for architectural applications.

Automated powder coating booth

Using the technical specification, QUALICOAT defines powder coating quality requirements and monitors the compliance of licensed plants worldwide. As a result, purchasers of coated aluminium receive a premium-grade product delivering long-term value with good quality. Over the past four decades, QUALICOAT has made a great contribution in assuring the quality of aluminium products used in architecture.

Most of the general licensees or national associations work together with a testing laboratory accredited according to EN 45001. These laboratories are bracketed together in the “QUALISURFAL Agreement Group” recognised by the European Organisation for conformity assessment (EOTC). In countries without a national association, QUALICOAT engages experienced inspectors to review the licensees’ performance. Licensees who fail to meet the requirements of the Technical Specification can lose their licence. The latest editions of the Technical Specification is available from the Association website.

The Technical Specification is updated every six months to encompass enhancements which are researched and presented to the directorate in Zurich. This research is undertaken by working groups consisting of members across the globe. Once ratified, it is added to the Technical Specification which all licensed members are expected to adopt within a given timescale. Licensed coating members are inspected twice yearly to ensure that their production meets the current Technical Specification. To ensure the widest uptake of the documentation, it continues to be freely available from the Association website without cost.

In the UK and Ireland, the Association is proud to support 25 licensed architectural powder coaters who serve the majority of projects in the UK & Ireland through systems companies and their installers.

In order to maintain the highest quality, the supply chain continues to be vertically integrated with a wide range of equipment manufacturers, powder suppliers and chemical pretreatment systems providers are also required to be licensed members of the Association with their products meeting the requirements of the Technical Specification.

QUALICOAT UK & Ireland members will celebrate their 25-year anniversary in reaching this milestone at their next meeting in November. Anyone wishing to attend as a guest should contact the association directly.

The current QUALICOAT Specification is also freely available for download via the UK & Ireland associations website and offers an up-to-date list of licensed UK and Ireland Powder Suppliers, Pretreatment Suppliers and Applicators.

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