Companies that outsource to coil coaters for prepainted metal realize a host of advantages over businesses still utilizing in-house paint shops. Prepainted metal provides the opportunity for companies to meet modern design standards with cost-effective paint-finishing processes and meet ever-increasing environmental regulations.
Design with Prepainted Metal: Endless Possibilities
Prepainted metal is everywhere, used to make appliances, furniture, cars, machinery, and equipment, building interior and exterior products. Coil-coated, prepainted metal is durable and functional, with an unlimited array of colors and properties. Prepainted metal designs can be complex or simple and aesthetically pleasing while also providing greater resistance to corrosion and quality problems than post-painted products.
Prepainted metal allows for a wide variety of texture options, with surfaces that can mimic shiny metal, wood, stone, stainless steel, asphalt, slate, and other materials. Prepainted metal opens the door to endless design options not achievable with in-house post-painted processes.
Cost-Effective Paint Finishing Process
Prepainted metal provides many cost-saving efficiencies over in-house post-painting processes when companies consider all cost factors, including in-house paint line labor, storage and disposal of paints and chemicals, capital expenditures, maintenance, and expenses to rework substandard products. Prepainted metal improves product quality and performance and reduces in-house expenses.
Coil Coating Is Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly
Coil is considered to be the most sustainable and environmentally responsible method of paint application to aluminum and steel substrates. Coil coating provides many eco-friendly advantages, including:
- Closed-Loop, VOC Capture – Coil coating is a closed-loop, highly efficient process with 98% of all volatile organic compounds, VOCs, burned during the curing process. Coil coating curing ovens capture VOCs to eliminate toxic air pollutants while saving energy.
- Coil Exceeds EPA Standards – Coil coating meets and exceeds the highest EPA standards for a cleaner, more sustainable process over in-house paint operations.
- Recyclability – Prepainted steel and aluminum can be completely recycled and still maintain their original mechanical properties even after multiple times of recycling. Nearly all prepainted metal used in building construction can be collected and recycled after reaching the end of its product lifecycle, which can be 50 years or more. Recycling helps you conserve natural resources and reduce waste in landfills.
- Product Longevity – Coil coating provides maximum resistance to corrosion and moisture to extend the product lifecycle of metal substrates. Prepainted metal in building components delivers unrivaled product longevity with long-lasting, high-functional performance. Prepainted metal can be treated to meet the needs of the environment in which it is used, such as added corrosion resistance for buildings near the coast with exposure to saltwater or UV protection for outdoor components.
- Energy-Efficient End Products – Not only is the coil coating process the most energy-efficient method of metal paint application, but prepainted products also provide maximum energy efficiency with coatings available with solar reflective properties. Prepainted metal helps companies achieve LEED credits and supports green building initiatives.
Speaking with an experienced custom coatings provider can help you to understand your options and the many benefits realized with prepainted metal.
Universal Chemicals & Coatings Inc., UNICHEM, has been providing high-performance coatings for use in coil coating prepainted metal processes for more than 50 years. We can help you to evaluate your current paint process and offer cost-efficient production solutions that also improve product quality and provide these many additional benefits. Contact us to learn more about the many advantages of coil coating for prepainted metal.