Tinting service plays an important role in the adjustment process of new brand colour for machinery

Dometal, which manufactures high-quality tilling machinery, has renewed the look of its Multiva brand. Finding the new colour for the brand was not easy as the requirements were set high. Teknos played an important role in the adjustment process of the new colour. The outcome was the unique “Multiva Grey”, which does not exist in standard colour charts.

Originally developed for the fertile yet demanding soil of Western Finland, the Multiva tilling machines are sold already in 20 countries. Dometal, founded on 1997, is a family-owned business that invests heavily in developing its production as well as products. Its subsidiary Multiva Magyarorszag Kft was founded in 2013 in Hungary and is responsible for sales in the region. It supports dealers in the Balkans, which is one of the largest market areas for the company.

Brand visuals are an important part of a company's identity. The new brand look was designed with care for about a year and launched in September 2019. “The previous green colour served us well, but we wanted to renew and modernise the entire Multiva brand. The change applies to everything starting from the logo. The advertising company sketched the adhesive labels for the machines, while we worked out their arrangement on the products,” says Pasi Mäkelä, Production Director at Dometal Oy.

When looking for the new colour, the starting point was to find just the right tone of grey. “The grey must be as close to black as possible, yet it must stand out from the black parts,” describes Pasi Mäkelä. But finding the suitable colour was not easy and took a lot of hard work. “Teknos was an important partner in the adjustment process of the right colour,” Mäkelä praises.

A prototype machine painted with the new Multiva Grey colour cultivating a field in Western Finland in summer 2019.

Paint film withstands chemical and mechanical stresses well

Multiva seed drills, disc cultivators and trailers must withstand heavy wear as well as chemicals used in fertilisers and feedstuffs. “We have tested the chemical resistance of the paint surface with different fertilisers. The resistance is good,” says Mäkelä.

The large parts of the machines, such as booms, are painted with a dual-component, low-solvent TEKNODUR COMBI 3430 polyurethane paint, which forms a paint film that has excellent resistance to mechanical stresses and weather.  Small parts that need to dry fast are painted with TEKNODUR COMBI 3560 polyurethane paint that can be used in a polyurethane system able to resist mechanical stress and weather.

“When a customer has its own brand colour, each batch is meticulously monitored. It is vitally important that the colour is exactly the same with consistent factory output. It is part of product quality,” underlines Jan Åkerlund from Teknos. 

Besides the high quality of products, Dometal values the comprehensive and professional service it received from its paint provider

“We have also tested other paints. The quality of paint is of course decisive, but it is also important that deliveries are shipped without delay, help is near and available as needed, and that also painters are satisfied with the products,” Pasi Mäkelä observes.

“Cooperation between the two companies works well and as they say, ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it,’” says Pasi Mäkelä, assessing the many years of good collaboration between Teknos and Dometal.

Teknos was and important partner in the adjustment process of the new colour for the machinery.