Metalcolor is one of the few European coil coaters to have its own paint mixing unit. This allows us to offer to our customers an unlimited number of colours across our entire range of finishes. Our paint preparation or “mixing” unit thus undertakes the mixing and tinting of over 60% of the paint batches we use, while the rest comes from suppliers. In the current era where shortages and supply delays are widespread, our in-house paint mixing is a huge advantage. The system offers great autonomy and allows us to cover our needs to a large extent.

As early as 1993, Metalcolor had acquired its own mixing unit for its paints, making us a unique case in Europe at the time. Since then, we have continued to develop this service for our customers, constantly enriching our range of references and shades allowing us to offer an infinite number of variations.

We use roughly fifty components, which are applied during two stages. In the first, the “barrelling” stage, the various varnishes and pigments are added, after being weighed in proportions specified in a pre-established formula. The second phase, known as “tinting”, is the adjustment of tint and viscosity using colorimetry software. The “mixing” department is equipped with a laboratory where paints are applied to aluminium samples and undergo a simulation of the process of the coating lines. This makes it possible to measure and correct the colorimetry, to ascertain various properties such as the thickness, gloss, reticulation and flexibility of the coating.

We also process paints received from suppliers. Although they are ready for use, they still undergo some priming: they are stirred then checked and their viscosity adjusted if need be, and in the case of certain references, the colour is verified before delivery to the coating line.

Whether they are made in-house or sourced from suppliers, the batches are delivered to the coating lines maximum 4 hours before the start of operations to guarantee the quality parameters of the wet paint.

In the “mixing” department, almost a full-time job equivalent is dedicated to preparing colour samples for our clients. “It’s a demanding task, the formulation process is software-aided, but several adjustments are necessary, and they require all the experience and know-how of our staff members. It takes 30 to 90 minutes to make a colour sample, or even several hours in the case of metallic multi-layered coatings, for example. Last year, 900 references including 300 new shades have been presented to our customers,” says David Feuvrier, Shop Floor Manager in the mixing department.

In 2020, our laboratory prepared some 500 tons of wet paint applied to over 2000 batches. 700 different shades were produced, including 150 new references. The latter were developed with the aid of our software dedicated to colour formulation. We also have unique software dedicated to the recycling of surpluses. “It enabled us to recover about 30 tonnes of leftover paint in 2020, which were then transformed into a different colour. This represents not just an economic gain but also a reduction of our environmental impact,” says David Goutte, head of the laboratory.

David Goutte
Laboratory Manager

At Metalcolor, “lean management” is applied not only to production but also to administration. The “lean” approach is designed to improve products and processes continuously while identifying value streams and eliminating unnecessary activities and costs. Our faithful employee Iris Alder works in Management Support, where she harnesses her 20 years’ experience as Sales Coordinator for the purpose of developing lean management in our company, a task to which she is now entirely dedicated.

The “lean” approach basically distinguishes between value-adding activities, for which the customer is willing to pay, and non-value activities and waste. Some non-value activities are necessary like loading trucks, writing invoices or bookkeeping. However, this work should be simplified or integrated wherever possible. Other activities which are unnecessary to end-customers and the company should be eliminated.

Accordingly, various sales administration tasks have recently been automated. When orders are being registered, that information is fed into transportation orders. The system automatically calculates the weight and the space needed on the truck floor. These orders are transmitted electronically to our freight forwarders, who receive a loading number together with the date and time for collection of the goods. “This system is an excellent tool, the arrival of the truck is recorded in our system, allowing us to gauge the punctuality of our transporters. Besides, the drivers are in possession of the transportation order number, which avoids any confusion as to the batches to be loaded,” says Pedro Da Silva, who is in charge of loading. The loading date is also transmitted to Production so that goods can be manufactured on the date scheduled under the “PULL” system.

Once loading is completed, a simple click converts the transportation order into an invoice. Another advantage is that, because the transportation order includes the weight of the load and the space it occupies on the truck, the system is able to calculate the transport costs accurately. Transporters’ invoices are received by email and processed through our electronic document management system, which is linked to our ERP System (Enterprise Resource Planning). Invoices are then automatically verified and the system validates them for payment. The only invoices sent to the sales administration for verification are those whose amount do not correspond to our estimate. “This development has made for major time savings in sales administration and accounting, allowing people to devote that extra time to more qualitative and value-adding tasks. Moreover, errors such as double payment or double billing are eliminated,” says Luis Ovelha, Head of Sales.

And Iris Alder concludes: “Not only does this optimised system save time, it also allows us to analyse transport costs, as we are able to establish statistics in real time by country, by client and by region.” Several other aspects of administration are currently being developed with this same concern in mind. These include simplifying the order registration process and extending the reception of orders, or the sending of order confirmations and invoices via an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) system.

Luis Ovelha
Head of Sales

Thanks to a solar photovoltaic power station installed on the roofs of its industrial halls and operated by an outside contractor, Metalcolor will very soon be consuming electricity produced on-site.

For many years now Metalcolor has been a responsible and environment-friendly player. The company is certified under the ISO 14001 and 50001 standards, as well as by the Energy Agency of the Swiss Private Sector (EnAW), thanks to its voluntary commitment to steadily improving its energy efficiency. This commitment continues today in collaboration with three subsidiaries of the Holdigaz Group, for the purpose of installing and operating solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs of the factory.

Supplied by Energiapro SA, the roughly 5940 m² of panels installed by Agena SA have a power-generating capacity of 1116 kWp.
Under the contract signed with Holdigaz Production, which operates the installations, some 45% of the output will be consumed directly on-site. As such, it is expected that as of this summer, one-third of Metalcolor’s electricity needs will be covered by this local and renewable source, which will also bring financial savings.

Morgane Bourdon
ISO & IMS Coordinator

To prepare for further growth in demand, Metalcolor is boosting its slitting capacity with the inauguration of a new Redex high-performance slitting line in early 2021.

“Demand is increasing. Having already added new shifts and introduced overtime, we are currently upgrading our slitting department”, explains Hugo Goncalves, the head of the department. A new 1250 mm wide line has been installed. It operates at a maximum speed of 250 m/min. The increased axle diameter ensures that the shafts are perfectly parallel. This guarantees high precision and burr-free edges. In addition, the tension device adjusts automatically to the increasing coil diameter, which ensures even recoiling tension.

The integrated and fully automated coil extraction, handling, weighing and packaging section is a boost to productivity. “This equipment is fully in line with our environmental commitments. Safety and ergonomics as well as energy consumption were among our top priorities in making this investment”, explains Silvano Moreira, Project Manager for this investment. “Thanks to high-performance motors and electronic controls, energy consumption has been significantly reduced for this production section – despite a substantial increase in our output!”

“The new slitting and packaging line also enables us to optimise labour resources. In the long term, we will be able to increase production while keeping the same number of operators in the department”, says Silvano Moreira.

Some processes still need to be adjusted. After this and at the end of the training phase, a productivity gain of around 50% is expected in the slitting department.

Denys Kaba
General Manager
Manufacturing & Development

Reducing our CO₂ emissions with a regenerative oxidizer

Over recent years, Metalcolor has invested in numerous projects which have produced substantial energy savings. The new “regenerative” solvent incinerator is the most significant achievement in terms of fossil energy savings and energy recovery.

The changeover from a recuperative incineration system to a regenerative system combined with high-capacity heat exchangers means that it now takes less energy to incinerate our solvents, and we are able to maximise heat recovery, which leads to even more energy savings.

Thanks to the high-temperature hot air obtained by heat recovery from the incinerator, the furnaces of the two coating lines consume considerably less gas. The daily challenge is to recover as much hot air as possible from the incinerator to obtain the lowest possible gas consumption. This is monitored online by management software for all our energies and has resulted in a 35% reduction in gas consumption per kilo of aluminium, or 3000 MWh per year.

The excess heat from the incinerator also heats the entire Metalcolor site and eliminates the need of fossil fuels such as fuel oil and propane, resulting in a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions.

Morgane Bourdon
ISO & IMS Coordinator