Coloral will unite all its activities under one roof

Specialised in machining and surface treatment, especially for aluminium, the independent family business is currently located at two sites in the town of Neuchâtel. A large proportion of the components that are meticulously manufactured there is destined almost exclusively for the watchmaking industry and, in small quantities, for medical instruments, semi-conductors, machine tool manufacturers and jewellers. Founded in November 1949, the company was initially devoted to an entirely different field of business.

History
Trained as a chemist and shopkeeper, Mr. Mikailoff sold coloured aluminium combs in his perfumery boutique. These items were very popular, but their colouring, which was irregular and varied from batch to batch, did not satisfy the retailer, who decided to colour them himself and rented premises suited to this purpose.

At the same time, watch manufacturers were launching aluminium watch cases on the market, which were very popular due to their lightness. Coloral soon decided to specialise in developing watch cases by proposing anodisation of aluminium, as well as gold colouring of aluminium as an alternative to gold plating. This alternative met with a favourable response and the company thus turned towards this new discipline. The lightness of the anodised components, coupled with their high resistance to corrosion, as well as reasonable costs, appealed to more and more watchmakers. In 1952, Coloral processed around two million components dedicated to watch cases.

Keen to expand its range of services, Coloral launched “GL” anodising in the 1960s. Developed in partnership with the Straumann Laboratory, this new treatment had the particularity of endowing machined parts with a better friction coefficient and thus enabled watchmakers using it to rely less on their “best enemy” lubricants. The success of this new activity led Coloral to expand and it relocated to Rue Beauregard in Neuchâtel, where it is still based today.

At the end of the 1970s, the firm experienced some difficulties. Pierre-Alain Storrer, a graduate laboratory technician who was working at the time for one of the firm’s major clients, strove to revive the company’s activities. In 1981, he took over the business, which he headed until 2007.

In 1985, in order to expand the range of services, Storrer decided to add a new string to Coloral’s bow, namely component machining. In 1999, the development of the machine fleet of this workshop forced the firm to begin exporting. The Maillefer site was set up just a stone’s throw away from the parent company.

Since 2007, Coloral has been managed by Pierre-Alain Storrer’s two sons, Cédric and David, as well as by Giuseppe Lentini.

Services
Coloral now offers a very extensive range of services, from the machining of different material – aluminium, steel, titanium and brass – to the treatment of a wide variety of surfaces and the complete production of watch cases. The seven decades of experience it has acquired enable its executives to advise customers in the best possible way in choosing alloys, different treatments, colours and graphics.

The Beauregard site, the company headquarters, houses the workshops dedicated to aluminium and titanium anodising, laser marking, screen printing, pad printing and beadblasting; while the Maillefer site houses a dozen CNC machines for component machining.

Aluminium specialists
The speciality for which the company is renowned, namely the anodising of aluminium, remains its core strength. This complex process – also known as eloxing – consists of treating a surface to protect or decorate it. An oxide layer is created on the surface of the aluminium. A “layer” is built up on the surface of the workpiece by means of a bath composed of sulphuric acid through which an electric current flows. Depending on specific requirements, the part can be coloured on the basis of a range of different shades on offer. This technique is generally used on aluminium, but can also be applied to titanium or alloys related to these two components. Anodising endows components with greater resistance to wear, corrosion and heat. It also gives them shimmering colours.

In order to further improve the quality of the components, Coloral has developed – in collaboration with a foundry – a lead-free aluminium alloy which is easy to machine and which gives incomparable brilliance to the resulting parts. The company also holds exclusive Swiss rights to the 316AL alloy – named after 316L steel – which is particularly hard and guarantees a more resistant and deeper colouring, thus eliminating the risk of surface deterioration. It is especially used in aeronautics, Formula 1 and the weapons industry.

The future under construction
Finding itself cramped within its existing premises and wishing to optimise its production flows, the company decided to relocated and build a new entity in the Neuchâtel region. It found the necessary space in Cressier and on November 4th 2019, exactly 70 years after it was entered in the Commercial Register, it symbolically launched the construction of this new entity, which will be completed by spring 2021. This ultramodern 4,800sqm building will be equipped with solar panels, heat pumps, a heat recovery system as well as a wastewater treatment and recycling facility. A brand-new automatic anodising line will be installed in the building.

While the production facility is important to the management, research and development also has a prominent place. A doctor in engineering sciences was hired more than a year ago. He is actively working on the development of new treatments in partnership with the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) as part of an InnoSuisse project.

While Coloral obtained its first ISO 9001 certification in 1992, the new management team, aware of its environmental footprint and keen to minimise it, earned the ISO 14001 environmental certification in 2012. In order to develop its activities in the medical field, Coloral plans to obtain – once it has moved to its new premises – ISO 13485 certification, an international standard that establishes the requirements for a quality management system specific to the medical device sector.

Constantly striving to provide the most comprehensive service possible to its customers, the management is delighted to be moving to its new premises in Cressier in order to further improve the quality of services offered to its broad customer base.

Production capacity:

• 100,000 units processed per day
• 6,000 discs machined per day
• 1,000 titanium parts machined per day
• 5,000 cases assembled per year
  
  

January 23, 2020