Cromax® flies the Topaz colours at Dublin airport
In 2013 Dublin Tunnel Commercials, a bodyshop based near Dublin airport, was asked by Fingal Aviation to paint six 4,500 litre petrol tankers for Topaz Energy Group Ltd – Ireland’s largest fuel and convenience brand. Cromax®, formerly known as DuPont Refinish, was the brand of choice.
Sean Kavanagh, Dublin Tunnel Commercials bodyshop manager, explains, “Crown Paints has been supplying us with Cromax® paints for over 20 years. It’s the only paint brand we only consider using for big refinishing jobs such as this. The quality and durability of the paint are excellent. It gives a superior finish and the application time is very fast.”
With 40 years’ experience and a 34 strong workforce, Dublin Tunnel Commercials is a renowned specialist in all aspects of commercial vehicle maintenance and is a certified DoE test centre for light and heavy goods vehicles.
“We also work with small private vehicles, but the majority of our work is for the haulage industry,” says Kavanagh. “We moved to our current location, between Dublin Airport and the tunnel port, 20 years ago for that very reason. A job like these tankers is certainly not unusual for us.”
It took one of Dublin Tunnel Commercial’s painters and an apprentice just six days to complete the task of refinishing the first of the Fingal Aviation tankers. It was a lengthy process which included sandblasting the chassis and truck, pre-cleaning, priming with Cromax® P7 Epoxy Primer, painting with two coats of Imron® Elite HDC and finally baking for 30 minutes.
Kavanagh says, “the tankers, which are refuellers for aircraft, had to be painted in the Topaz livery, which consists of Topaz white on the body and Topaz grey on the undercarriage and chassis. And it goes without saying that the products we use must have a very high chemical resistance and gloss level.”
David Dempsey, Crown Paints sales manager, adds “whenever Sean comes to us with a specialist refinishing job like this, he knows that Cromax® will have the solution he needs. Aviation fuel can be corrosive so it was vitally important to find the right products for the job. We sent a technical expert from Cromax® along to take a look at the tankers and make an assessement.”
With the first tanker complete, work has begun on the second. Dublin Tunnel Commercials is confident its workmanship together with the productivity of the Cromax® products will ensure all six Topaz tankers are back at work at the airport in no time.