Colorfast Backstory:
A legacy of fastening excellence

EJOT Colorfast has been helping architects, OEMs and roofing and façade contractors in the UK create high performing metal building envelopes with outstanding aesthetics for more than 30 years. Such is Colorfast’s appeal, however, that the benefits of these colour-matched, over-moulded self-drilling fasteners are increasingly being realised by customers internationally as the creation of highly sustainable buildings becomes the number one priority.

Now onto its third generation, the concept of Colorfast emerged in the 1990s when the EJOT UK team embarked on a project to provide a more advantageous option for colour-matching fastener heads to the roofing and cladding sheets. 

At the time, plastic cover caps and painted heads were mostly being used to achieve this, but both came with compromises. Cover caps were not universally popular with installers because they found them awkward and time-consuming to use, and their longevity credentials were uncertain, leaving many building owners disappointed with the long term appearance and – in some cases, the performance – of their roof or façade. 

Whilst fasteners with painted heads offer a more viable alternative, they too have vulnerabilities unless they are manufactured and installed to the very highest standard. For example, there is the genuine risk for the painted head to be chipped or damaged during the fastener’s insertion, which could expose bare metal to corrosion. This, in turn, would impact on the building envelope’s overall aesthetics and envelope performance.
 

Unlocking over-moulding’s potential

Fastener over-moulding technology was in its infancy at the time of Colorfast’s development and, until EJOT’s breakthrough, no other fastener manufacturer had successfully risen to the challenge of creating a product the market could depend on. 

Combining its experience in manufacturing industrial and construction fasteners, EJOT Group technicians in Germany had perfected a process for over-moulding a nylon head onto high-quality carbon or stainless-steel screws. These were typically for white goods and automotive assemblies, as well as some very specific ‘on demand’ applications for emerging construction markets serviced by regional EJOT subsidiaries across Scandinavia and Northern Europe. 

In the UK, the team spotted an opportunity and took the visionary step to adopt the principle and apply it to market-wide applications for the roofing and cladding industry.

The key to the success of the fastener was the design of the head, engineered to maximise structural integrity and performance through uniform compression of the washer. The concept was tested, approved, and the Colorfast brand was registered in 1993.

 

New colour potential balanced with performance

Initially the Colorfast range offered around 50 colours aligned with RAL and British Steel swatches. This palette was considered to be extensive at the time and ranged from the expected plethora of greys through to lesser used options such as ‘Petra Red’, ‘Terracotta’ and ‘Solent Blue’. There was even the exotically named ‘Eau De Nil’ or ‘water of the Nile’. By contrast, today there are nearly 400 standard colours available with the option of bespoke colour matching too.

With the over-moulding completely encapsulating the fastener's flanged metal hexagon head, Colorfast allows for a bi-hex torque to transmit directly for a positive and secure driving process. This design principle changed installation options forever, giving installers an easy way to achieve a dependable seal at the head, maximising corrosion resistance above the line of the roofing sheet. 

Colorfast’s design was a game-changer in that it drastically reduced the risk of over-driving when used in tandem with the correct installation tool. This was achieved through the natural expansion of EJOT’s drill point technology combined with the bi-hex drive – both allied to application-specific thread geometries requiring the recognised drive speed and torque. These remain the key ingredients for a range of fasteners that aims to optimise installation and product-life performance. 
 

Real-life performance data feeds into continuous improvement

The Colorfast range grew to include fasteners manufactured in carbon and stainless steel to suit every kind of environment. The fact that it has stood the test of time and remains an industry leader is largely due to the fact that EJOT continues to develop its self-drilling range.

To put that into perspective, it means that EJOT UK has a wealth of performance data and anecdotal evidence to support its performance standards. This applies to colour stability, corrosion resistance and building-life performance. EJOT’s continuous improvement ethos is achieved through regular recalibration and testing. This is a pre-requisite for any manufacturer to stay compliant with environmental legislation, both in the UK and internationally, which is regularly reviewed and updated.

Given that the permitted chemical composition of colours is constantly changing, regular monitoring is conducted to the material used for Colorfast heads, which in turn has the potential to maintain the product’s ‘light-fastness’ strength. As a result, ongoing testing and tweaking of the UV stability of all colour combinations is required to harmonise with the recognised colour matching systems, such as BS, RAL, NCS, Pantone and international equivalents whilst offering the highest resilience to the most demanding environments.

From a specifier or contractor’s perspective, choosing products with a known pedigree gives greater control and reduces risk, which is particularly important for fasteners given their role in creating weather-resistant, airtight, and visually appealing buildings with future-proofed performance. Now, with 30+ years of Colorfast being used in building projects across the UK and worldwide, and around 650 million sold, the popularity of this mainstay seems stronger than ever.