About
Through continued growth and re-investment Surface Processing Limited has established itself as the largest sub-contract chemical cleaning facility of its kind in the UK today.
Servicing a broad range of industries from the automotive sector, storage and pallet racking, specialist pipework pickling for hydraulic and gas turbine installations, MOD and aerospace, our expertise in this field is second to none.
We provide a quick response service to many household names including GKN, British Aerospace, Dunlop, Jaguar, BMW, Land Rover, Unipart, the list goes on...
Capacity is the key to our success. Able to process single items from just a few millimetres across up to 8 metres x 2 metres x 2 metres up to 5 tonnes there are a few items that cannot be cleaned through our system, however we even have the solution for these!
In 1994 Surface Processing Limited set out to provide the automotive finishing market with a high quality and reliable resource for de-greasing, paint stripping and rust removal. The unique processes developed serve an extensive range of industries, providing recovery routes for many components, pressings, assemblies, castings, etc. that require re-work or refurbishment. Some of these items are new parts that have been rejected for a wide variety of reasons, for instance weld problems, paint defects, rust or other contamination. In order for them to be rectified and then coated to the required standards the paint and/or contamination must firstly be completely removed. Through continued development we have been able to provide our customers with a re-work route for parts or complex assemblies which were otherwise effectively scrap. Our processes are able to remove paint, rust, grease, sealants, silicon, scale, etc. from a variety of substrates including steel, aluminium, brass, zinc and recently an entirely new system has been developed for reclaiming painted plastic components.
Following ever increasing demand from the motorsport industry, Surface Processing Limited agreed to take on the task of developing a practical and cost effective method to remove all of the paint, sealants, underseal and corrosion from a car bodyshell.
Such a process would be able to provide a number of key advantages over the current preferred route of either hand stripping or bead blasting inevitably stress relieves the panels leaving tell tale rippling and poor paint finish as well as the problem of how to remove all the debris. As for stripping by hand…!
Whilst there have been other attempts to provide such a process until now none had been consistently reliable. Surface Processing Limited, an ISO 9001 approved supplier to the automotive OEM market, have the resources and experience to overcome the initial problems of handling and so the process route could be developed. Using their experience from within the automotive manufacturing sector they were able to develop their facility and provide their operators with the training needed to fully appreciate the standards that would be required to achieve the goal.
Aside from the many thousands of components and jigs, Surface Processing Limited now successfully process over 250 car shells per year for both the motorsport and classic restoration market with the quantity set to increase dramatically over the next 12 months. The process is used on a number of cars in World Rally Championship as well as a number of prestigious restoration projects.
The process is able to remove all paint, sealants, adhesives, noise reduction materials and underseals. In addition it effectively removes rust and breaks down filler without attacking the surface of the mild steel in any way. After the contaminants are removed the shell is then completely passivated and neutralised leaving the client with a clean mild steel shell. This provides the perfect start for any rebuild or restoration. Any welding can be done without the complications encountered with the adhesives and paint, and, any extensive corrosion damage or earlier repairs are clearly identifiable. If you are restoring or converting any vehicle this is the best start you can have. The time savings can be immense - no more scraping off underseal, rubbing down rust and welding through toxic sealants worse still if you are paying someone to do it!