[RENOLIT] REFACE News

    New quality marks in metal facade renovation

    Worms, May 13, 2022 - An industry-wide quality standard now applies to the surface renovation of metal facades with the help of plastic films:

    At the end of last year, the German Institute for Quality Assurance and Certification RAL released a quality mark for film products for metal facades (RAL GZ 635/3) and for metal facade film (RAL GZ 635/4). The new quality and test specifications are a joint development of the Gütegemeinschaft Reinigung von Fassaden und Metallfassadensanierung e.V. - GRM, RENOLIT SE, 3M Deutschland GmbH and IFO Institut für Oberflächentechnik GmbH.

    The new quality marks are the result of years of coordination between the partners involved with the aim of creating a uniform basis for all companies in the industry. "We contacted the Gütegemeinschaft (then GFS) back in 2016 - at a time when metal facade renovation with self-adhesive film was still largely unknown," reports Stefan Schmatz, Sales Manager of the RENOLIT Facade Business Unit. At that time, the company was very fresh on the market with its RENOLIT REFACE renovation film and very interested in setting the bar as high as possible for product and processing quality.

    Rules and regulations expanded

    The company found a competent comrade-in-arms in the American chemical multinational 3M - a rather unusual situation, which in turn brought the managing director of the then JRC onto the scene: "The initial skepticism about this new technology quickly gave way to a willingness to cooperate at the association level and ultimately led to us laying the foundations for today's GRM regulations together with the two companies, the IFO and various processors," reports Lars Walther. The association expert attached great importance to reconciling "theory and practice" so that the quality controls associated with the new process would also be practiced." Ultimately, the existing set of rules for rehabilitation by painting was expanded to include rehabilitation with self-adhesive films.

     

    This opens up good market opportunities for all companies in the industry. "The independent qualification through RAL certification increases the standard and thus confidence in this technology," predicts Stefan Schmatz, at the same time drawing a clear line to products that are not specifically designed for this application. Lars Walther also sees a high benefit for the association's work: "Changes keep standards alive, and only through such processes can we prepare ourselves for further future changes - both in terms of processing know-how and technological bandwidth."

    The RENOLIT Group is an internationally active specialist for high-quality films, sheets and other products made of polymers. With more than 30 production sites and sales units in over 20 countries and sales of 1.279 billion euros in 2021, the company, headquartered in Worms, is one of the world's leading plastics processors. Around 5,000 employees are constantly developing the know-how from more than 75 years of the company's history.