Surface World July 2020 Handbook | Page 168

QUALICOAT UK & IRELAND QUALICOAT members meet online As with many organisations at the present time, QUALICOAT have moved to an online meeting format. In early June over thirty members of QUALICOAT UK & Ireland joined the chair and general secretary for their quarterly Council Meeting. Architectural powder coating applicators reported that they are back at work and operating at 50% or greater capacity with the expectation that business will increase over the coming months as more businesses return to work in the construction sector. New applicator membership at the beginning of the year looked very promising with Warren Services joining early in the year but with a further three new applicator members delayed due to final plant and process inspections being halted due to Covid-19. It is hoped that with lockdown now easing, and the possibility of ‘remote inspections’ being introduced by QUALICOAT Zürich, that these potential new members will be able to gain their applicator licenses and join the ‘QUALICOAT UK & Ireland Team’. Since the last association meeting in February, a further two companies have expressed interest in joining the association and are awaiting first inspections. With 419 architectural powder coating applicators in membership across the globe, statistics on all powder coating testing in 2019 have now been collated and QUALICOAT can confirm that the 78% of the membership, now use chrome free pretreatment systems. The results confirm the robust nature of today’s chrome free alternative pretreatment systems. Of the 22% balance of membership 20% use chrome based pretreatment and 2% of the membership now offer anodic pretreatment services which continues to grow. For the applicators still using chrome based systems, REACH have 166 2020 - 2021 read online: www.surfaceworld.com