Machines for sheet metal
Prepainted metal and the building industry: a machine manufacturer’s perspective through 40 years
The industrial use of coated coils has registered an impressive and constant growth in the past 40 years. The European Coil Coating Association (Ecca) statistical data on European production, highlight that from 1975 to 2010 the use of painted metal has increased in average 6,4% per year, form 144 million square meters in 1975 to 1,260 million in 2010. Few industrial sectors can report the same growth trend.
Production systems have evolved in parallel, with processes that had to take into account the new characteristics of painted metal, such as flexibility of the paint and resistance to abrasion.
This article will cover the development and application of prepainted metal coils in the European market, and highlight micro-trends experienced in three specific fields of the building industry:
- Window frames
- Metal ceilings
- Aluminum rolling shutters
Click here for more information on roll forming machines for pre-painted materials.
Coil coating in the European market 1975-2015
From 1975 to 1990 the average growth rate has been 10,6% per year, with peaks over 30% between 1975 and 1983. Several sectors at that time were processing material that required subsequent finishing, and there was a strong will to skip the painting operation by moving to coated coils.
From 1990 to 2010 the yearly average growth rate has been 3,2%. In this case the growth is registered in square meters, corresponding to over 40 million more square meters every year.
About 70% of the production of coated coils is employed for building and construction applications (sandwich panels, rolling shutters, metal ceilings, cladding).
The cooperation between machine manufacturers with the material suppliers has been a key point for the success of the new materials: in fact, the painting applied to the base materials has several requirements:
- Resistance to the machining operations
- Flexibility of the paint for bending operations
- Consistency of the color over the years
- Resistance to wind, rain, hail, sun exposure
- Resistance to surfactants and cleaning products
In the first years, coated metals did not certainly comply to all these requirements: the coating technology had to improve its performance and processing equipment had to be adapted to the characteristics of these new materials.
Producing roll forming equipment since 1978 and focusing on painted and delicate materials, our company witnessed the evolution of the product, cooperating with research offices, experts, customers and suppliers.
The building sector has evolved, moving from standard to coated coils very quickly.
This article wants to focus on three industrial sectors, and show how the coated coils have been introduced and used: window frames, metal ceilings and rolling shutters.
Read the complete article here >>
