Custom powder coating colors & color matching.

The more precisely you tell us the color, the more precisely you get it. In order from most to least exact:

• Manufacturer and product code. The powder maker and the exact product number from your spec sheet or a previous job label. This is the gold standard. It pins down color, gloss, texture, and chemistry at once.
• RAL number plus finish. "RAL 7016, satin, 40–50 GU" is a good spec. "RAL 7016" alone is half a spec, because the same RAL comes in gloss, satin, matte, and texture from a dozen manufacturers.
• A physical sample. A part, a chip, a paint swatch, or a competitor's product you want to match. We find the closest existing powder or have one custom-matched by the manufacturer.

This is the part of the business we care about most. If your customer will notice a shade off, so will we. Color drift on production parts almost always comes from one of four places: a different powder product substituted for "the same color," a new powder lot with slight batch variation, inconsistent film thickness, or under- or over-cure changing gloss. We control all four.

Every repeat part gets a spec file: powder manufacturer and product code, gloss range, target mil range, cure schedule, masking map, rack orientation, and packaging notes. For long runs, we buy powder by the lot and record which lot went on which job, so a mismatch can be traced instead of argued about. Nobody has to remember anything, including us.

When no stock powder is close enough, we send your sample to a powder manufacturer for a custom match. They formulate the powder, spray a test panel, and we approve it against your sample under daylight-balanced (D65) light before it goes into production. Custom-matched powders are made in batches, typically with a minimum batch size and a lead time of one to three weeks, so this makes the most sense for a color you will run more than once.

For one-off matches, such as a replacement gate panel that has to match the rest of the fence, we find the closest stock powder and show you a sprayed sample before we coat the part. Weathered originals are harder; UV fades most colors, so "match the old one" usually means matching the side that faces the house.

For a new production part, we coat a first article (or a small first batch), you approve it, and that approved part becomes the master. It is labeled, bagged, and kept in the shop. Future runs are checked against it for color and gloss. If you want your own retained sample, we coat two.

This matters most for OEM production runs and architectural and furniture work, where parts from different runs end up installed side by side. It also matters for railing jobs that come back for an extra section two years later.

We stock the colors our repeat accounts run, plus the common workhorses: gloss and satin black, texture black, white, RAL 7016 anthracite, bronze, and a few safety colors. Stocked colors go on the standard schedule. Anything else we order by product code from the major manufacturers, typically in three to five business days.

Specialty finishes such as candies, chromes, illusions, and wood-grain effects are available by order. Some need a two-stage process, which we will spell out on the quote. For the 2–3 business days promise to hold on an ordered color, the clock starts when the powder arrives. We will tell you both dates up front.