Diversification brings coating success in the automotive industry

Having gained considerable experience in the coatings business, Product Release claims a competence in coating a range of items and sizes from a standard plate through to a large roller and can cater for a variety of coating needs. The company boasts a reputation for successfully turning around and delivering business to short deadlines and faced with customers who have time limitations, few spare manufacturing parts and a demand for minimal disruption to their production runs. Product Release prides itself on turnaround times of 36 hours. Despite a history in bakeware and engineering, Product Release has now diversified to service the coating needs of the automotive sector, solving a major problem at a leading car manufacturer. In the fast-moving automotive industry there is little downtime for the cleaning or replacement of manufacturing parts. Faced with the need to increase shift patterns a leading car manufacturer approached the company for an alternative solution to maintain machinery uptime. Managing director Ian Gates explained: "We were approached by a leading car manufacturer who, due to their continued success within the UK market, was faced with moving from a two-shift pattern to a three-shift pattern. Previously the gratings were uncoated and regularly had to be physically removed from the paint booths for cleaning externally. The change in work patterns resulted in this no longer being practical so we set out to find an alternative solution. "Having a strong working relationship with our fluoropolymer coating supplier, Whitford, we worked together to develop a coating system allowing the grates to be cleaned on-site, negating the need for the production area to be dismantled to be sent out for cleaning. The excellent easy-clean properties of the Whitford coating system made the removal of paint and other residues straightforward, the results of which avoided any unnecessary stops to, or deviations from, the revised shift patterns." Product Release was formed in 1996 and amalgamated with Dansk Silicone Central ApS to become Product Release Europe in 1999.