12 Reasons Why Industrial Painting is Worth the Investment

Industrial maintenance (by which we mean regular cleaning, specialist industrial cleaning and industrial painting) usually falls into two categories; preventative and responsive. Unfortunately, we often see that budgets are mostly only spent in response to an accident, emergency or failed audit. In other words,  maintenance budgets are spent only ‘when absolutely necessary’ after an incident, rather than planning prevention measures in advance, which will inevitably reduce the risk of accidents or failed inspections. They also save your site money by boosting productivity and safety in the long term.

Industrial painting fits into the preventative maintenance category, and it has numerous benefits for an industrial plant to make it well worth the investment. In this blog post, we explore why industrial painting is a must-have consideration when planning what maintenance and protection your site needs. 

What is industrial painting?

Industrial painting, or industrial coatings, is a wide term to encompass all types of painting done on or in a manufacturing facility, warehouse, power station or any kind of industrial plant. Industrial painting differs to commercial painting in that it focuses somewhat less on aesthetics (although a good painting company will still deliver an excellent finish), and more on the protection of the surface. 

Some purposes of industrial paint can include (but aren’t limited to); 

1. Rust-resistance

Popular with steel structures, silos and other outdoor metal assets that can rust over time. Rust resistant paint will help prevent rust from weakening the structural integrity of the painted surface.

2. Antimicrobial

Antimicrobial paints contain chemical agents that hinder the growth of pathogens and microbes on a painted surface. These paints are popular in hospitals and medical settings, however are also useful for food production facilities. Antimicrobial paint can also prevent staining, discolouration, leeching, mould growth and other factors that can affect the look of a surface.

3. Heat resistance

Specialist heat resistant paints can protect a metal surface from extreme heat; paints that we use in manufacturing facilities protect up to a temperature of 750 ℃. 

3. Slow the spread of fire

Intumescent paint is a specialist kind of paint which expands significantly (approx. to 50 times the painted thickness) when in contact with fire or heat over 120℃. This foam expansion creates a carbon ‘char’ layer which insulates the surface for a certain amount of time, usually from 30-120 minutes, which prolongs evacuation times for the building in question. Intumescent paint is often used in public buildings such as libraries or multi-story car parks.

3. Slip resistance

Some industrial paints cater for floors and walkways with an anti-slip grit texture which can prevent against slips and falls. Anti-slip clear coatings can also be used over already painted floors. 

Benefits of Industrial Painting

Our team here at Kingfisher have decades of experience in industrial settings and therefore we can safely say we’ve seen a lot over the years. A big takeaway from our work is that, when industrial managers plan their maintenance ahead of time and keep on top of cleaning and maintenance, they save themselves a lot of headache, grief and money in the long run. 

Here’s a list of the 12 biggest benefits of industrial painting, and why it is well worth the investment for your facility. 

Manufacturing facilities with hot production zones or furnaces will know all too well the dangers of extreme heat. We work frequently with sites where extremely hot areas become coated in thick oil, dust, or crusted material which damages the surface beneath. Once hot surfaces are properly cleaned (more on this here), then painting can begin. Painting your surfaces with a heat resistant paint can create an effective firebreak which slows the spread of any future fire, as it is not only heat resistant but it creates a surface which is much easier to clean in the future. 

In industry hot zones, it’s important to properly delineate safety signage, walkways and handrails to prevent accidents in an already hazardous area. For these works it’s very important to partner with a company who is well trained with working in extreme heat, who takes Health and Safety very seriously and who implements effective safety measures to protect the welfare of their cleaning and painting teams.

Industrial plants are stereotypically dirtier and grimier than commercial businesses with their shiny and polished head offices. Aesthetics usually take a back seat in industrial plants, and we can’t wholly blame anybody for preferring functionality and safety over style. 

However, if your exterior or interior paintwork is dull, dry, rusted or flaky with years of no maintenance, then this doesn’t give a good impression when visitors or clients come to view your facility. They may not want to invest potentially hundreds of thousands, or even millions of pounds for you to produce their product in a facility that doesn’t reflect their professionalism and reputation as a company. 

Some important visual areas to keep painted and refreshed are external facades, walls, ceilings, floors and walkways, as well as machinery or equipment. Even better, a painted and fresh work space does wonders for your employees and overall site morale.

For food production manufacturing facilities, antimicrobial coatings could be very helpful for painting walls and surfaces to hinder the growth of pathogens. Antimicrobial paint also slows or stops the growth of mould or fungi and will be easier to keep disinfected with regular cleaning.

Intumescent paint expands or ‘intumesces’ when it comes into contact with heat over 120℃. An insulating carbon layer is then formed to significantly slow the rate of fire by a specific time period, usually 30-120 minutes. Intumescent painting can therefore increase the evacuation times of buildings in the unfortunate event of a fire, and is a popular choice for public buildings such as offices, libraries, car parks, warehouses, etc. It can also be a great choice for steelworks or infrastructure in a manufacturing facility with hot production zones or furnaces. 

Appropriate flooring or floor painting can reduce the risk of slips and falls, when done correctly. Anti-slip walkway paint is especially useful as a it creates a gritty surface and increases friction to reduce risks of slipping in wet conditions.

If areas of your factory accumulate oil, dust and grime quickly, especially around production machinery or furnaces, then painting metal surfaces or steelwork makes them much easier to clean in future. The visual element of a painted surface also gives a better visual marker of when contaminants are starting to build again, so you know when cleaning is needed.

Our furnace and forehearth firebreak painting services is designed to clean and paint metalwork and steel infrastructure around production hot zones which are particularly prone to quickly becoming coated with oil and other by-products of the manufacturing process. These areas are also at a high risk of fire because of this. However, a regular and effective cleaning and painting plan creates a firebreak to slow or stop the spread of fires to other areas of the factory.

An industrial site doesn’t have to mean a dark, dirty, dingy facility that meets a 1970s stereotype. Ensuring that your external facades and buildings are painted with your company colours, and that your interiors are visually fresh with safety colour coding, will do wonders for the overall look of your site. 

Keeping your paintwork fresh and vibrant can have a very impressive effect owing to the large scale size of most industrial plants. We completed a large scale painting project in 2022 that completely transformed the look of one of our clients facilities, which had a great impact on their subsequent customer and auditing visits.

The main cost saving and profit boosting benefits of industrial painting come from maintaining and enhancing Health & Safety, and protecting the many different surfaces found on an industrial plant. Protection is the underlying goal and focus of many types of industrial painting, prolonging the lifespan of your industrial assets and increasing their efficiency. Effective painting of infrastructure will protect against rust and corrosion for years to come, reducing the need for costly repairs. Vibrant colour coded safety marking and floor signage will also go a long way for reducing risk of accidents or injury.

Beyond functionality, keeping your site fresh and visually impressive will do wonders for your brand image and reputation as a company, helping you attract customers and investors while impressing auditors, clients and shareholders. Industrial painting can completely transform the appearance of buildings, equipment and signage; don’t underestimate the impact of a cared-for site!

Of course, many areas of industrial facilities are extremely hazardous or are very difficult to access owing to the nature of the area, whether it be pipework, machinery, high-level areas, etc. A trained and professional industrial painting company will be able to select the most effective and appropriate working method for accessing the area as safely as possible.

It’s no use planning an industrial painting project if the surface to be cleaned is covered in oil, dirt, rust, chemicals, etc. A surface has to be properly cleaned and prepared before it can be painted. That’s why we think it is prudent to partner with a company that offers both specialist industrial cleaning as well as industrial painting, so that the project can be completed efficiently and cost effectively. 

Check out an article we wrote a while back on why industrial floors in particular are best tackled with cleaning and painting together in the same project. 

Conclusion

Having an idea about what surfaces you have on site, and the types of protection they might need, goes a long way for determining the best and most cost effective kinds of industrial painting which will bring benefit to your site. In short, industrial painting is well worth the investment because of the protection that it brings for your assets. 

A painting project also doesn’t have to cost the earth when you partner with an experienced, trained company who will select the most time and cost-effective method of industrial painting. We are proud that many of our industrial painting jobs have been awarded owing to our smart, flexible, effective project methods which took less time and were more logistically convenient for our clients than our competitors.