3 minute read
ANALYSIS
What is the Added Value of a Powder Coating? Customisation, Colour and Finishing Engineering, and Small Batches
Guido Pozzoli, CEO Stardust Powder Coatings
L’Aquila (Italy)
In the powder coating segment, there is a big gap between what users think a powder coating is and what it actually is, especially when it comes to customised products in terms of colour, finish, or functionality. Such a mismatch between the real value of these products and market perception naturally causes a problem in understanding their costs, particularly when only small batches are required. For years – especially at the time of their debut on the industrial coating market – powders have been perceived as poor finishes for low-value parts. With time, this conception has been overturned thanks to the enormous strides made in terms of technology, application, and performance through the R&D activities carried out by manufacturers. Powder coatings have thus conquered high-end markets such as architecture, design, and automotive. Today, they are the most luxurious, highest performing, and most
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sustainable choice for a wide variety of industries, which are increasingly looking for special effects in finishing. It is precisely in the search for different effects that the added value of a customised powder coating comes into play. However, anyone who is not familiar with powder coatings may imagine that producing them is almost as simple as mixing tempera, a favourite childhood game. This perception is even more widespread among those who are familiar with liquid paints and thus with the production of sample finishes through colour mixing, a process that is virtually no different from “mixing tempera” – this is why, unsurprisingly, many users think that manufacturing a powder coating with a customised tint is comparable to colour mixing. What many people are unaware of is that producing customised powder coatings actually requires hundreds of different raw materials, which a manufacturer must master and always have in stock. At Stardust Powder Coatings, known for the tailor-made quality of its coatings and for its ability to customise them to the highest level, we handle over 200 different types of raw materials. With such a large number of raw materials, the possible combinations to formulate a powder coating are almost infinite. However, the true value of a powder coating lies not so much in the raw materials used, which give it the required functionality, but in the process of colour and finish design and engineering, especially when dealing with customised powders and not mere commodities. Stock colours, e.g. colours from the standard RAL range, are designed only once to meet the needs of as many users as possible. The engineering work is simple, the production process equally so, and the required process and quality controls are standardised. The difficulty degree is lower than that normally required to produce customised coatings or coatings complying with the NCS colour standard, such as those that Stardust routinely develops in batches starting at 25 kg. Many end customers only realise the added value of a customised paint once they have witnessed its manufacturing process, from order entry and sample assessment to formulation and production. Stardust’s customers are impressed by the complexity of this process and they understand the economic values involved and the technological investments required to meet their demands.
A tailor-made powder coating is composed of some substantial components with a sort of pyramid hierarchy: • The part that is most visible and understandable to everyone, i.e. colour, accounts for 15% of the total value. • The part that is also visible, but more technical and not immediately recognisable by everyone, i.e. the paint’s finishing effect, which accounts for another 15% of the total value; only insiders understand the critical issues and production differences among micro matte, super matte, structured, and textured finishes. • The functional part, which is the hidden element that accounts for 70% of the total value; only insiders can understand it. The data sheet of a paint product allows users to understand its performance characteristics, but only the manufacturer owns the specific know-how behind them; one can make hypotheses about its formula, but not immediately replicate it. Producing a 25-kg batch of a coating with a customised colour, a particular effect, and additional features, therefore, means keeping one’s production process under constant control, implementing a very strict quality control protocol, and having the technology to do all this. This is where the added value of a tailor-made powder coating lies. At Stardust Powder Coatings, we are creators, artists, designers, formulators, innovators, perfectionists, and producers. In few words, colour engineers.
