Enran achieves good results with Tikkurila polyurethane products

ZAO Enran is a diversified Ukrainian company that manufactures windows and furniture. Its business interests also include construction, investment, communications, transportation and trade. Enran has been active in the Ukrainian market for over 15 years.

Enran owns 10 stores in the Kiev area alone that retail high-quality furniture to offices, hotels, banks, and private homes. It also has over 50 furniture retailers throughout the Ukraine. Customers include well-known car dealers such as Audi, BMW, and Seat, the country’s largest banks, construction companies, law firms, travel agents, advertising companies, and administrative organizations.

 

Thanks to its high-quality furniture, Enran is a leading player in the local market and conforms to ISO 9001:2000 quality standards in the Ukraine.

 

New technology challenges paints and lacquers

 

“Today, over 70% of furniture manufacturers use Fine line veneer technology”, says ZAO Enran’s leading technologist Yriy Petrovich Lesyn. Fine line technology is utilized to produce sheets of veneer from soft woods, which are then dyed and moulded into various shapes of all colours and sizes. Veneers contain 90-92% wood, 8% glue, and 0-2% dyes.

 

For this new technology, Enran had to find a partner that could supply polyurethane lacquers suitable for its production line. Even before the project began, Enran sent out a list of requirements to paint and lacquer manufacturers.

 

Veneers produced with the new technology have a porosity depth three times greater than that of traditionally made veneers. Lacquers must therefore have good penetration abilities and be able to fill up the pores in the wood structure. In order to reduce number of lacquer layers, products with a high solid content were needed. Neither would any yellowing be allowed.

 

Tikkurila products undergo testing

 

Tikkurila Technical Service experts tested Novipur Sealer ST and Sealer SH priming lacquers and Novipur Clear TIX20, Clear HS100 and Clear SH30 finishing lacquers several times at the Enran factory. These products had to have extremely good chemical and mechanical resistance, as Enran offers a 7-year minimum guarantee on its furniture. The mechanical test results have the greatest influence on the overall results.

 

Enran’s experts found that surfaces treated with Novipur Sealer SH and Novipur Clear SH30 lacquers were clearly more durable than any competing products. Tikkurila was able to supply office furniture with surfaces finished to meet Swedish “Möbelfakta” certification standards. This also had a positive effect on the outcome.

 

For its part, Enran has studied product characteristics and analysed the uniformity of their quality: viscosity, differences in shades, solid content levels, and drying time.

“The uniform quality of industrial lacquers is a highly critical factor when setting up painting line robots for example”, adds Lesyn.

Although it took more than six months to find the right lacquering concept, Enran’s research showed that Tikkurila products have all the right qualities.

 

Tikkurila Technical Service makes a difference

 

Enran was interested in working with Tikkurila, as the company was able to supply polyurethane-based products backed up by technical customer support. Tikkurila has its own subsidiary in the Ukraine, whose skilled personnel can visit customers and help them select the right paint combination and resolve any possible problems together.

 

Looking ahead

 

Enran has supplied office furniture, whose surfaces were finished with Tikkurila products, to 700 branches of the Ukraine’s largest bank among others. It also intends to extend the use of Tikkurila Novipur polyurethane products to its other production lines.

 

Text: Irina Mironenko, Department Head, TOV Tikkurila, Kyiv, Ukraine

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