About Palmer Primer
Colin Palmer, the founder of Palmer Primer originally worked for ICI in the 1960's in the Technical Service Department in Slough.
One of his tasks was to identify and provide solutions encountered with the use of the ICI priming machine by its customers.
Although Colin found the job rewarding he noted that any changes he wished to make to improve the designs could not be undertaken quickly to the highly complex priming machine that ICI supplied to clients for timber priming.
Colin decided in 1969 to leave ICI and set up Palmer Primer, his own business with his Christine, his first wife, to offer a timber priming service to the local timber and joinery manufacturers. Christine handled the administration and accounting sides whilst Colin set to work on the design and manufacture of a simple-to-operate portable priming machine to satisfy these needs.
As the customer base grew through the 1970's and early 1980's he realised that there was a ever growing demand for this facility, so decided to withdraw from offering a mobile priming service, and to design, manufacture, and sell these priming machines to merchants around the UK.
The name Palmer Primer rapidly spread through the industry as a means to increase and improve priming production and profit for minimal capital outlay.
The business continued to expand as timber merchants and importers across the country realised the profits to be made by offering a timber priming service to their customers.
Unfortunately Christine and Colin divorced in the 1980's.
In the mid 1980's Colin realised that a higher quality finish was required than was currently achievable using a Brush timber priming machine.
Colin remembered seeing a Vacuum Coater from his early days in ICI following a earlier site visit, so went over to the customer who was still using the unit. After spending considerable time researching the design of the unit he discovered a phone number.
Calling the number in the USA he then spoke to the original inventor of the Vacuum Coater as we know it today, a Mr Neal Camp.
After much correspondence and telephone calls Colin flew out to the states and spent much time with Neal, the inventor of this strange unit, and a strong friendship was built up over the weeks to come.
Colin learned that in 1962, Neal had taken out a worldwide patent on this curious machine for a 17 year period, but had decided not to renew the patent when it came up for renewal.
Neal also confirmed to Colin that although a UK agent had imported one of his Vacuum Coaters into the UK, no further sales had been gained and contact was lost.
Neal was unaware that this customer had subsequently claimed a UK patent for his Vacuum Coater, and in so doing, claimed that this was of their own design.
But the patent records exist for all to be seen in the USA....and as we all know, you cannot claim patent rights on something already in the public domain !
Not wishing to steal Neal's ideas and designs the question had to be asked as to whether Colin could produce a Vacuum Coater based around Neals designs, Neal gave Colin his blessing to design and manufacture Vacuum Coaters for use in the UK and abroad, figuring that the UK was much too far away for him to be bothered by sales so far away.
With much enthusiasm, information and knowledge, Colin flew back to the UK, ready to put pen to paper, and designed and built the first of many improved Vacuum Coaters based upon the conversations with Neal, the first of which was ready for delivery to its first customer J.O.Walker & Son Ltd in the mid 1980's.
The advantages of a Vacuum Coater over a Brush Coater are considerable. For starters there are no jets or brushes used in the coating process. The finish produced is similar to that found using conventional spraying equipment except that it is repeatable, and is far faster with the excess product being re circulated instead of being wasted in the water wash.
Another major improvement was that MDF Board can be coated using the Vacuum Coaters, providing a uniform smooth coating, with no streak marks to mar the appearance of the final coating.
The Vacuum Coater has been continually improved since the earlier designs to allow easier use by the operators, whilst still retaining the basic strengths of the first unit.
Improvements have been made to the basic design such as easier cleaning down, and increased structural strength combined with increasing efficiency and power outputs.
Stainless steel is used for the manufacture of the main tank assembly, eliminating rusting problems, whilst providing an excellent surface for cleaning down with no fear of damaging any fancy coatings on the inside or the outside of the unit.
The latest improvement came about when one of his first customers (J.O.Walker & Son Ltd) who had purchased several machines from the very first brush coaters through to the latest Vacuum Coaters asked Colin to design and manufacture a vacuum Coating unit that would not only paint the timber section, but would also dry the paint film sufficiently to allow for handling whilst dry and provide the ability to stack straight off the back of the unit without the problem of strip marks caused by wet paint.
After extensive research into the drying methods available it was decided that electric Infra-red was the most suitable method.
Gas infra-red was researched, although the initial purchase costs are lower, gas is a dirty medium to use which affects the long term reliability, and the actual running costs are substantially higher than electric, this coupled with the by-product of water vapour which causes more problems with grain-lifting.
Ultra-violet coatings were also looked at, the problem with these types of products is the brittle nature of the paint film, not something that you want on your architrave and skirting board with all the day to day knocks they incur. The same problem was anticipated for window board which has a wide temperature range to cope with. It might look nice but would its adhesive properties stand up to the continual contraction and expansion of such a medium.
The other major problem was the lack of opacity, and also its glass like finish which is an absolute nightmare for the painters on site who have to rub the surface down to make the subsequent paint coats stick. This defeats the whole idea of pre-priming the section to reduce the painters time, when he is now wasting time with sand paper instead of undercoating and glossing.
Electric infra-red was chosen, due to it's clean nature, and relatively inexpensive maintenance costs, combined with environmentally friendly water based paints, stains and lacquers.
After much development the first combined Vacuum and Drying system was designed and built in the early 1990's.
The first customer took delivery, and shortly afterwards ordered a even more advanced unit to compliment the first machine due to the considerable saving in labour costs, production time, and the dramatic improvements in finish.
Since the early days of the combined Vacuum Drying system considerable strides have been made to improve the efficiency of the unit.
Feed speeds continue to increase, together with improved operator controls. Ease of use was, and still is, the keyword to the operation of this unit.
Fancy gimmicks and dials may have their place in sci-fi movies, but are certainly not used to control the throughput of timber, or MDF sections through the coating process of a Palmer Primer machine, just straightforward easy to use controls.
These machines have been designed to be used for the timber and joinery trade, to coat a variety of timber and MDF mouldings ranging in size from small 13mm beading sections up to 250mm wide window-board.
All the machines apart from the Vacuum Drying system can coat timber and MDF board using both water based and white spirit based paints, stains and lacquers.
Colin decided sell the business to his son Richard. He retired from the business life in 1993 to enable him to concentrate on, amongst other things, his artistic talents such as oil painting, water colours, stainless steel sculptures, and digital photography, even venturing into the new art of digital design using a laptop PC....something that Colin had hated up to the point of retiring....
Oh yes, and his love of flying, using a Microlight...which he bought for himself as a Christmas present.
The first flight! being across the back garden without the wings at a rather higher rate of knots than was considered prudent - before realising that microlights don't need brakes in the sky, or any means to stop on the ground, and promptly crashed into the garage. If only Richard & Jo had a video of the 1st flight - It was a true classic!
He also had a few scary moments - such as when he took his second wife (Janice) up as a passenger, and over working and seizing up the engine - Excess weight and fat blamed as as the contributory cause!
Or running out of petrol, almost certainly caused by a heavier load than he had calculated for...and in this instance, landing in Alconbury a US airbase which nearly caused a political incident, though the military police saw the funny side of the incident and dumped the rather overwight 2nd wife off in the direction of a petrol station for a bit of exercise!
After travelling around the world he decided to sell up and move to southern Spain with his second wife to enjoy what he hoped would be a long, happy and contented life.
He continued to use his laptop PC, modem, and mobile phone to remain in contact with his off-spring Richard and Jo, his sisters Kath and Monica, and his many friends, especially, David, Alistair, Andy and Glen.
Sadly, Colin suffered a massive heart attack and stroke on the 26th October 2001, aged 64.
Though sadly missed, his work continues in many forms, and he will never be forgotten. His own achievements are scattered across the world.
Both Colin and his first inspiring wife Christine, worked so very hard to create and sustain Palmer Primer, and his son, Richard continues after the take-over to further improve the business...
As to Palmer Primer, we continue to strive to improve the design and manufacture of the Brush Coating and Vacuum Coating machines for our customers - we currently produce four standard machines for this task:
Brush CoaterBC III
A semi-mobile electric motor driven coating machine which deluges water and white-spirit based paint, stains or lacquers, onto all faces of timber mouldings up to 250mm wide, using brushes to brush off the excess paint, before being removed and placed either into a tree rack or into strip.
Vacuum Coater ELI+
A Entry Level Vacuum Coater, using a advanced Vacuum process to apply and remove excess water and white-spirit based paint, stains or lacquers on all sides of timber or MDF mouldings up to 150mm wide, this unit has a fixed four speed power feed with a maximum speed of 22 metres per minute.
Vacuum Coater VC IV
The Standard Vacuum Coater uses our advanced vacuum process to apply and remove water and white-spirit based paint, stain or lacquers, from all sides of timber or MDF mouldings in one pass, this unit will coat mouldings up to 250mm wide and at speeds of up to 40 linear metres per minute.
Vacuum Dry system DS IV+
This combined Vacuum and Drying systems will apply and dry water based paints, stains and lacquers on all faces of timber or MDF moulding in one pass, this unit utilises the advanced Vacuum application system in combination with forced drying, to both apply and dry the coating in a single pass, at speeds of up to 35 metres per minute.
NOTE: We have in the past, produced machines for customers which can only be classed as none standard. Please contact us if you have a unusual requirement.
Please select one of our timber and MDF painting and priming machines from below:
If you would like to discuss further details on any of the above, please feel free to contact sales on Tel 01623 793281, or fax your requirements to 0871 288 2498