This year marks the 20th anniversary of collaboration between Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings, and ALUCOIL, a multinational manufacturer of high-tech aluminum materials for the building and construction industry based in Spain.
Axalta developed a customized version of its Alesta® powder coating for ALUCOIL that would not only produce the best possible results, but also would enable ALUCOIL to attain high-speed cycle times. The result was Alesta Speed powder coating.
To celebrate the two-decade-long partnership, the companies are launching a new collection of metallic powder finishes, called the Pure Metal Collection, for aluminum sheets. The range marks an important development for architects, designers and specifiers as, until now, it has been difficult to match metallic colors of standard architectural polyester powder coatings used on aluminum profiles to metallic colors used on aluminum sheet or panels. This has created color-matching problems on building façades between aluminum panels and aluminum profiles.
"Axalta and ALUCOIL are more than just business associates," says Clemente Gonzalez Soler, President of ALUCOIL's parent company, the Alibérico Group, a building, transport and industrial advanced materials specialist. "We are partners. Axalta is focused on understanding Alibérico's requirements and works tirelessly to anticipate those of the future. The outstanding mechanical properties of Axalta's powder coating, the continual innovation in new colors and finishes, and the high production speeds these powder coatings allow us to achieve, have all turned this 20-year partnership into the success it is."
The relationship started in 1997 when Alucoil designed and produced a new high-speed coating line for aluminum sheet and coil and needed a powder coating that would enable it to achieve fast production cycle times. Today, ALUCOIL uses Alesta Speed for protective and decorative applications to service customers across Europe, North and South America, Australia and Morocco.
Alesta Speed offers ALUCOIL curing times that are four times faster than standard polyester architectural powder coatings, so the coating line runs at three to four times the rate of traditional ones. Alesta Speed is also exceptionally flexible, which is essential for the aluminum coils, sheets that are coated with this fast cure powder coating; they can be shaped or bent as required without damaging the coating.
Mercè Berengueras, Axalta's Architectural Prescription Leader Alesta Powder Coatings for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says, "Our long-term relationship with ALUCOIL is based on trust, reliability and our continuous innovation. By listening to what ALUCOIL needed 20 years ago, and working with them today on what they will require in years to come, we are able to help them achieve their goals every day."
The Pure Metal Collection will be commercially available in Europe from July 2017.
For more information: powder.axaltacs.com
Axalta Coating Systems company in MyIpcm Directory of industrial coatings and surface treatments technologies suppliers: Axalta Coating Systems