When working with parts or components, professional finishing services become a vital part of the manufacturing process. If it’s done poorly, it doesn’t matter how careful you’ve been with the initial production, cutting or moulding as the end product will not look good.

Why Finishing Services In Manufacturing Matters

The appearance of the final product will always have an impact on saleability, especially when it’s a shoddy job. If a customer is unhappy with the finish, you may have to start all over again and that means wasted time, resources and increased costs.

And then there’s the health and safety aspect of poor finishing. Rough or sharp edges won’t be acceptable to your customer and may also cause injuries to those working with them. So, finishing a job properly and professionally is just as important as the rest of the production process.

However, the finishing is not just about the look of the end product. Fact is, the main reason for finishing services in manufacturing is to prevent corrosion or ensure conductivity, and choosing the correct coating is key to get the maximum lifespan from the item.

How The Right Equipment Can Help

Improvements in equipment can result in spending much less time preparing for specialist coatings or finishing services. Waterjet cutting machines are a perfect example of this as the improved cutting widths and directions, combined with the ability to cold cut, often means there is no need for secondary processing.

If the product or component requires additional finishing, preparation of the material (smoothing and polishing) is just as important as the choice of coating to ensure the best results. At PRV Engineering, we like to provide the same excellent level of customer service and finish to all parts of any project.

However, this can’t be guaranteed if you sub-contract the final part of the process which is why we decided to have our own in-house finishing department.

Sub-Contract Engineering Services

Whilst we rely on providing sub-contract engineering services, we’ve been doing it for long enough to know it can go horribly wrong. That is why it’s so important to understand how to prepare your product for finishing and knowing which coating will deliver maximum results. Lack of effective surface preparation or using the wrong type of paint can put your product at greater risk of corrosion.

Getting the finish wrong can be disastrous and that is often the case when outsourcing certain projects to sub-par engineering ‘cowboys’. Remember, once you sub-contract a job, you have to delegate a certain amount of control and responsibility and you never quite know what you’re going to get and therein lies the problem.

Separating The Wheat From The Chaff

Sadly, not all engineering companies share our sentiment as many of them just want to get the job done quickly and cheaply. Indeed, you may invest millions in highly skilled labour and expensive machines but if you take a perfectly produced component and apply the wrong coating or finishing, you might as well throw it in the bin.

Thankfully, we found out early on that the world of sub-contract coating and finishing is littered with ‘fly-by-night’ companies. So, our decision to implement a ‘One-stop Shop’ wasn’t very difficult. Rather than leaving anything to chance, we decided to do everything in-house as we care as much about the work we do for our clients, as our clients care about it themselves.

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Finishing Services At PRV Engineering

As a major manufacturer of busbars, we not only provide the standard types of coatings but also a range of specialist finishing services that provide additional insulative or conductive properties to various types of products. This includes applications using a fluid bath, electrostatic spray or by simple heat shrink processes.

Our finishing department consists of a 6-metre shot blast room and various shot blast cabinets. It also has a powder coating booth, wet spray room and a 2.2-metre cubic high-bake oven. In addition to our cutting-edge finishing services department, we have the knowledge and experience to test the finishes to ensure the highest possible quality. We can test for the following:

• Gloss level
• Coating thickness
• Adhesion strengths
• Porosity
• Colour shade
• Dielectric strength
• Insulative or conductive properties

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Custom Fabrication And Finishing Services

Developing a quality fabrication department is no easy feat and requires continued investment in time and resources. It’s also vital to have a passion for the industry and the desire to produce top quality results whether you’re handling small or larger projects.

This includes manufacturing from the simplest to the most complex products as well as prototype testing and development. PRV provides high-quality custom fabrication and finishing services with a comprehensive portfolio of completed projects. We’ve listed some of them below:

• Aluminium Framework
• Architectural Steel Fabrication
• Boat Cradles
• Canopies
• Catwalks
• Cover Plates
• Fabricated Brackets
• Fabricated assemblies
• Gravity Conveyor Systems
• Juliet Balconies
• Mezzanine Floors
• Roof Walkways

If you’re looking for a vastly experienced, highly regarded UK engineering company, or would like more information on our finishing services, please get in touch. We can do one-off or large batch production specialising in automotive, defence, aerospace, construction and rail among others.