Welcome to Our Quality & Finish Guide
Welcome to our comprehensive quality guide, designed to give you total transparency into our production standards. We are proud to craft our products using premium architectural aluminum, which is widely recognized as the premier material for modern home improvements. Aluminum is incredibly lightweight yet structurally robust, entirely rust-proof, and exceptionally resistant to harsh outdoor weathering—ensuring your investment lasts for decades without the heavy maintenance of wood, steel, or the degradation of PVC vinyl.
To protect this durable metal, we apply professional-grade architectural coatings. Because our manufacturing involves precision mechanical cutting and advanced baking processes, each finished piece displays unique, minor structural traits. We created this guide to help you understand how commercial finishes are evaluated, what natural variations to expect, and how we maintain the highest quality standards in the industry.
Quality Evaluation & Color Standards
- From a distance of 10 feet (3 metres) away.
- At a 90-degree angle (standing directly front-on to the surface).
- Under natural exterior lighting conditions (not under magnification or intense directional spotlights).
Minor variations that cannot be seen from this 10-foot industry-standard distance are considered acceptable characteristics of the manufacturing process, rather than defects.
Colour Variance Disclaimer (Understanding Delta E)
Aluminum painting processes involve physical variables—including oven baking temperatures, humidity, and paint batch mixing—that naturally create minute shifts in colour. In the industrial coating industry, colour differences are calculated mathematically using a metric called Delta E (ΔE). This formula measures how far a finished color deviates from the master digital colour standard.
- A Delta E of 0 represents an absolute, identical match.
- According to architectural standards, production batches are acceptable within a range of Delta E 2.0
- A Delta E value of 2.0 represents a subtle color difference that an average consumer may slightly notice, but it remains well within the standard threshold of commercial acceptability.
Please note: even aluminum profiles painted with exactly the same batch of paint can exhibit slight colour variations due to differences in alloy, or parts that meet at different angles (vertical door stile meeting a horizontal door stile) due to the way the light reflects off the profiles. If you take two profile pieces that appear different at a 90 degree joint, disassemble them, and lay them side-by-side in the exact same orientation under identical lighting, you will usually find the physical paint color is a very good match. The difference is purely an optical phenomenon caused by viewing angle, geometry, and light reflection.
Acceptance Standards
Acceptable Variations
- Exposed cut edges: Clean, silver aluminum lines visible from the precision cutting process, which disappear when viewed from standard distances.
- Batch shade shifts: Minor color depth variations within the allowable Delta E industry threshold.
- Metal texture: Subtle grain lines from the underlying aluminum.
- Micro-pores: Microscopic pinhead indents in the protective finish coat.
- Edge highlights: Minor paint thickness variations on sharp metal corners.
Unacceptable Defects
(Any of the following items that remain clearly visible from the 10-foot viewing standard)
- Excessive color mismatch: Severe batch deviation that exceeds the allowable Delta E range under natural light.
- Jagged burrs: Sharp, rough, or un-sanded metal edges after cutting.
- Bare metal patches: Raw aluminum showing through flat, painted faces.
- Blistering: Air bubbles or lifting paint caused by poor adhesion.
- Rough grit: Embedded dust, metal shavings, or debris under the finish.
Other Materials
Although the preceding text has focused on aluminum profiles, there are other painted surfaces such as the aluminum sheet used in our roof and wall panels, castings, stamped parts etc. In addition, there are extruded plastics such as PVC glass stops, PVC jamb inserts and polycarbonate sheets. A plastic part is considered properly made if it is uniform and free of obvious imperfections when viewed:
- From a distance of 10 feet (3 metres) away.
- At a 90-degree angle (standing directly front-on to the surface).
- Under natural exterior lighting conditions (not under magnification or intense directional spotlights).
Minor variations that cannot be seen from this 10-foot industry-standard distance are considered acceptable characteristics of the manufacturing process, rather than defects. Colour variations described above also apply to these materials.