Perforated aluminium and Anomatch on Wellcome Genome Campus

Project Overview:

"This was an exacting and fascinating project to work on. We were even filmed in the process! An introductory video showing how the centre was developed is shown in the auditorium where our powder coating finish is at eye level - close up and touchable."

The Wellcome Genome Campus is a scientific research campus built in the grounds of Hinxton Hall, Hinxton in Cambridgeshire. The focal point within a newly designed Conference Centre is a 100m diameter circular screen created around the Francis Crick Auditorium with an image depicting the evolution of life. The image is created by perforations of different size and pitch in the curved aluminium panels - rather like a pixelated image.

Precision powder coating was required ensure that powder penetrated even the smallest perforation in order that the image would be fully revealed.

Solution:

The individual panels were 2.0m by 0.9m and only 3mm thick, with a border frame to retain the curved shape and enable them to be accurately bolted together. The perforations within them had infinitesimal differences in size and pitch, barely visible to the naked eye. Expert care with coating was required in order to ensure that the powder penetrated every single perforation.

We trialled a number of powder coating shades and finishes to find which worked best to reveal the underlying image and asoft pale bronze shade from our anomatch range was selected.The different size and pitch of the perforations created darker and lighter areas on the panels. Powdertech pre-treated and coated the panels on both sides.

Benefits:

• Powdertech (Corby) Ltd has over 25 years experience in architectural metal finishing with the know-how and facilities to carry out high precision powder coating.
• Excellent colour consistency between batches of powder coating used on the numerous individual panels.
• High performance powder coatings with a 25 year guarantee
• Support and advice on colour selection
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Images courtesy of RG Carter