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How to apply a wood grain finish on metal doors on an industrial scale ?

Hi friends

We fabricate cold rolled steel doors for the construction industry.
We form the metal doors on a press brake and dip them in red oxide primer.
We require a wood grain finish to be applied using an economical process.
Please advise on the best practice.

Thanks

Shehzad Essa
production manager - Johannesburg, South Africa
September 25, 2009

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First of two simultaneous responses --

To do this economically you need prepainted and preprinted coil with the desired woodgrain pattern which can then be stamped. You probably have seen this with some of your competitors products. Pretty well any type of wood can be matched. Its starting to get popular with garage doors.

My current employer does a lot of this keeping me busy with the colour matching.

Ronald Zeeman
Coil Coating - Brampton ON, Canada
September 25, 2009

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

Probably one of the many hydrographic film coatings is the cheapest and simplest way to go. Most of the distributors can set you up to do it in house. There are literally hundreds of custom gun, archery and motorcycle shops doing it. I've seen it done on TV and although like everything else it probably entails a bit of a learning curve, it looks like a pretty simple and brain dead thing to do after you get the bugs out.

Rod Henrickson
gunsmith - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
September 26, 2009