Paint can be applied and cured outside

A single coat paint finish allows components - including bare metal - to be painted and cured outside in inclement conditions without rain spotting, surface blooming or any loss of film performance.

Independent British paintmaker, HMG Paints, has developed a novel single coat finish with outstanding early water resistance, allowing items to be painted and cured outside in inclement conditions.

Called Raincoat, the heavily structured, semi-gloss finish is applied directly over bare metal and allows painted structures to be exposed to even extreme weather conditions within half an hour, claimed HMG in a report for Manufacturingtalk.

The product does this without rain spotting, surface blooming or any loss of film performance.

The formulation effectively changes the rule of industrial finishing, as it avoids heated or forced curing.

The product was jointly inspired by HMG's native Manchester weather and its underwater marine finishing systems used on dolphinariums in Florida, USA.

Raincoat was initially conceived to meet a specific customer requirement for Ultra Secure Products, a division of GB Industries, a manufacturer of steel anti-vandal site accommodation, and has been successfully trialled at its East Yorkshire headquarters, even during the recent rain-soaked British summer.

Replacing a previous paint system, HMG's finish has eliminated 'horrendous' rain spotting problems, removed the need to rework faulty paintwork, allowed newly-painted units to be stored immediately outside and freed up the existing production line, in addition to delivering an attractive, highly robust finish.

Ultra Secure Products' quality manager, Dave Bielby, said: "Raincoat has taken these previous problems away and the new painting system is going extremely well.

We have worked with HMG for some time and they provide a very good service.

Business is booming currently and we are painting upwards of 85 complete units a week".

Although the exact formulation is a secret, Raincoat is an ultra-high solids, quick drying coating containing high levels of anti-corrosive pigment.

Exceptionally easy to apply with an airless spray, it has a heavily structured, thixotropic consistency, giving a film thickness of around 150 micron, without runs or defects.

It offers outstanding early moisture resistance, with no loss of performance under highly adverse weather conditions, and will actually dry under water, so there is no need for forced curing, saving energy and equipment costs, said HMG.

Fully VOC compliant to all current and proposed legislation, it is available in all BSI/RAL colours for matching house or fleet shades and has an expected service life of around 10 years, depending on conditions.

Involving single-coat spray painting of large steel structures, the Ultra Secure application has proved a perfect test bed for Raincoat, especially as the company's East Yorkshire location is equally 'climatically challenged'.

Part of the Humberside-based GB Industries Group, which specialises in the off-site construction of building structures, Ultra Secure Products is one of the largest independent manufacturers of steel anti-vandal site accommodation and storage solutions.

Covering everything from single roadside washroom facilities to air-conditioned site offices with full data connections, Ultra Secure Products' steel units typically feature 1.6mm thick, fully welded steel walls and roofs, heavy duty corner posts and roof joints for safe stacking, and high security lockable doors and windows, together with a wide choice of internal cladding and finishes.

Embodying GB Industries' ethos of pre-building structures away from actual construction sites, so as not to be at the mercy of the weather and local availability of trades, Ultra Secure Products fabricates and fits out the modular units in its factory, paints them in three separate spraybooths, then stores them outside for customer collection.

The newly-painted units are thus exposed almost immediately to the elements, so as to maintain factory throughput, and the previous paint system was giving rise to serious water spotting problems, leading to necessary repainting work and consequent production delays.

* Chassis paints - HMG Paints was supplying chassis paints to another member of the group and was given the opportunity to meet this highly unusual performance specification.

Although there was some degree of scepticism on all sides that such a paint system could even be made to work, HMG's R and D department worked with Ultra Secure on formulating a brand new product, using as a start point a marine finishing system developed earlier for refurbishing aquatic tanks at Dolphin World, Florida.

Now, in addition to supplying Raincoat in various shades to match customer brand colours, HMG provides the total package of spray equipment and consumables.

It has also installed an aerosol filling station at the Ultra Secure Products' site, to enable the company to produce aerosol touch-up paints in different colours, for minor remedial work once the steel shells have been lined out and wired for office accommodation and other duties.

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