Tiger Drylac Powder Coatings: Complete Guide to Series, RAL Program, Specialty Effects, and Specification

Tiger Drylac USA is the North American operation of Tiger Coatings, an Austrian powder coating manufacturer with a global reputation for technical innovation and product quality. The company's North American headquarters is located in Ontario, California, and Tiger operates six manufacturing and distribution locations across the United States, providing comprehensive coverage of the North American market. This combination of European engineering heritage and American manufacturing presence gives Tiger Drylac a distinctive position in the powder coating market — the technical sophistication of a European coatings innovator with the local manufacturing and service infrastructure that North American customers require.

Tiger Coatings was founded in Austria and has grown into a global powder coating manufacturer with operations across Europe, North America, and Asia. The company's Austrian roots are reflected in its engineering-driven approach to product development, with a strong emphasis on resin chemistry innovation, color science, and application technology. Tiger's European heritage also means the company has deep experience with the Qualicoat and GSB quality certification systems that govern architectural powder coating in Europe, expertise that translates directly into high-performance products for the North American architectural market.

Tiger Drylac USA: Austrian Engineering, American Manufacturing

Tiger Drylac's product portfolio is organized into a series-based numbering system that spans the full range of powder coating chemistries and applications. The company offers Series 09, 16, 38, 39, 44, 49, 58, 59, 61, 69, 75, and 89, each targeting specific resin chemistries, performance levels, and application requirements. This comprehensive series structure, combined with Tiger's full RAL color program and extensive specialty effects portfolio, makes Tiger Drylac one of the most complete powder coating product lines available in North America.

Tiger's six US locations ensure that products are manufactured and distributed close to customers, reducing lead times and shipping costs while maintaining the quality standards established at the company's Austrian headquarters. Each facility operates under Tiger's global quality management system, ensuring consistent product quality regardless of which location manufactures the powder.

Series Architecture: From Epoxy Through Super Durable

Tiger Drylac's product portfolio is organized into numbered series that correspond to specific resin chemistries and performance tiers. Understanding the series structure is essential for selecting the correct Tiger product for any application, as each series is optimized for distinct performance characteristics and service environments.

Series 09 encompasses Tiger's epoxy powder coatings, designed for interior applications requiring maximum chemical resistance, hardness, and corrosion protection. These products serve electrical enclosures, laboratory equipment, chemical processing components, and interior industrial applications where UV exposure is not a concern but chemical and mechanical durability are critical.

Series 16 covers epoxy-polyester hybrid products, Tiger's workhorse chemistry for general interior industrial applications. Hybrids provide the balanced combination of chemical resistance, flexibility, and overbake tolerance that suits office furniture, shelving, appliances, HVAC equipment, and general metal fabrication. Series 16 products are available in a broad range of colors and finishes.

Series 38 and 39 represent Tiger's polyester powder coatings for exterior applications. Series 38 products use polyester TGIC resin systems, while Series 39 products use polyester HAA (TGIC-free) chemistry, addressing regulatory preferences in markets that restrict TGIC use. Both series provide reliable UV resistance and color retention for outdoor equipment, furniture, fencing, and general exterior metalwork.

Series 44 is Tiger's urethane-modified polyester line, offering enhanced smoothness, chemical resistance, and film properties compared to standard polyester. Series 49 encompasses Tiger's super-durable polyester products, formulated for enhanced weathering performance that approaches architectural specification levels.

Series 58 and 59 represent Tiger's architectural-grade products, with Series 58 targeting AAMA 2604 high-performance specifications and Series 59 addressing AAMA 2605 superior performance requirements using fluoropolymer resin technology. Series 61 covers Tiger's specialty functional products, Series 69 addresses primer and basecoat applications, Series 75 encompasses metallic and special-effect products, and Series 89 covers Tiger's premium architectural and specialty formulations.

Full RAL Program and Standard Color Availability

Tiger Drylac operates one of the most comprehensive RAL color programs in the North American powder coating market, reflecting the company's European heritage and understanding of the RAL color system's growing importance in global specification practice. Tiger's RAL program provides powder coatings matched to the complete RAL Classic palette, ensuring that any RAL color specified on a project can be supplied in Tiger Drylac powder coating format.

The full RAL Classic system comprises 216 standardized colors that are used worldwide for architectural, industrial, and product design specifications. Tiger's ability to supply the complete RAL Classic range — not just a selection of popular colors — is a significant advantage for projects with international design teams, European-influenced specifications, or requirements for less common RAL shades that other manufacturers may not stock or offer.

Tiger's RAL products are available in multiple resin chemistries, allowing specifiers to obtain RAL-matched colors in the performance tier appropriate for their application. A RAL color can be supplied in standard polyester for general exterior use, super-durable polyester for enhanced weathering, or architectural-grade formulations for AAMA-certified applications. This chemistry flexibility ensures that RAL color matching does not compromise coating performance.

Beyond RAL, Tiger Drylac maintains an extensive standard color palette that includes proprietary colors developed for specific market segments and design trends. The company's color development team creates new colors and effects on a regular cycle, introducing trend-forward options that keep the Tiger palette current with evolving design preferences. Tiger's color management systems ensure consistent color reproduction across manufacturing locations and production runs, supporting the color consistency requirements of both single-project and multi-site programs.

Tiger provides physical color samples, color cards, and digital color references to support the specification and selection process. For architectural projects, large-format sample panels are available for design review and owner approval. Custom color matching is available for projects requiring colors outside the standard and RAL palettes.

Specialty Effects: Candy, Designer, Fluorescent, and Glitter

Tiger Drylac has developed one of the most extensive specialty effects portfolios in the powder coating industry, offering decorative finishes that push the boundaries of what powder coating technology can achieve. These specialty effects enable designers and manufacturers to create visual impacts that were previously possible only with liquid coatings or multi-step finishing processes.

Candy effects are transparent, highly pigmented powder coatings that create rich, luminous colors when applied over metallic or chrome basecoats. Similar to automotive candy finishes, Tiger's candy powders allow light to pass through the color layer, reflect off the metallic substrate, and return through the color layer, creating exceptional color depth and visual complexity. The candy range includes vibrant reds, blues, greens, golds, and other hues that transform metallic surfaces into eye-catching decorative elements.

Designer effects encompass Tiger's collection of premium decorative finishes that combine multiple visual elements — color, texture, metallic flake, and surface pattern — into unique aesthetic statements. These products are developed by Tiger's color design team to offer finishes that cannot be achieved by simply selecting a color and gloss level from a standard palette. Designer effects are popular for architectural feature elements, retail environments, exhibition displays, and premium consumer products.

Fluorescent powder coatings from Tiger provide high-visibility colors that appear to glow under ambient and UV lighting conditions. Fluorescent powders are used for safety equipment, emergency signage, recreational products, and any application where maximum visual impact and visibility are required. Tiger's fluorescent range includes the standard safety fluorescent colors — yellow-green, orange, red, and pink — as well as specialty fluorescent shades for decorative applications.

Glitter effects incorporate visible metallic or holographic flake particles into the coating, creating a sparkling surface that catches and reflects light from multiple angles. Tiger's glitter products are available in various flake sizes and colors, from subtle shimmer effects to bold, high-impact sparkle finishes. Glitter effects are popular for recreational equipment, consumer electronics, automotive accessories, and decorative architectural elements where visual excitement is the design objective.

Anodized-Look, OGF, and Advanced Finish Technologies

Tiger Drylac's advanced finish technologies extend beyond conventional decorative effects into specialized coating systems that replicate the appearance of other finishing processes or provide unique functional properties.

Anodized-look powder coatings from Tiger replicate the distinctive semi-transparent metallic appearance of anodized aluminum without the limitations of the anodizing process. Actual anodizing is restricted to aluminum substrates, limited in color range, and cannot be easily repaired if damaged. Tiger's anodized-look powders can be applied to any substrate suitable for powder coating, are available in a broader color range than conventional anodizing, and can be touched up or recoated if damaged. The anodized-look range includes clear, light bronze, medium bronze, dark bronze, champagne, and black finishes that closely match the most commonly specified anodized aluminum appearances.

OGF (Outgassing-Free) technology addresses one of powder coating's persistent challenges — the tendency of certain substrates to release trapped gases during the curing process, causing pinholes, craters, and surface defects in the finished coating. Cast iron, galvanized steel, and certain aluminum alloys are particularly prone to outgassing. Tiger's OGF products are formulated to tolerate substrate outgassing without developing surface defects, enabling high-quality finishes on substrates that would be problematic with standard powder coatings. OGF technology is particularly valuable for job shop applicators who coat a variety of substrates and need products that perform reliably across different materials.

Tiger also offers low-cure powder coatings that achieve full performance properties at curing temperatures below standard formulations, reducing energy consumption and enabling coating of heat-sensitive substrates. Thin-film technology products achieve specified performance at lower film thicknesses than conventional powders, reducing material consumption per coated part. Anti-graffiti formulations create surfaces from which graffiti can be removed without damaging the coating. And Tiger's bonded metallic technology ensures consistent metallic appearance across production runs by physically bonding metallic flake pigments to each powder particle, preventing the separation issues that can occur with blended metallics.

Six US Locations and Manufacturing Infrastructure

Tiger Drylac USA operates six locations across the United States, providing comprehensive manufacturing and distribution coverage of the North American market. This multi-site infrastructure ensures that Tiger products are manufactured and shipped from facilities close to customers, reducing transit times and shipping costs while maintaining the consistent product quality that Tiger's global reputation demands.

The Ontario, California facility serves as Tiger Drylac USA's headquarters and primary West Coast manufacturing and distribution center. This location provides coverage for the western United States and serves as the administrative hub for Tiger's North American operations. Additional facilities are strategically positioned across the country to provide regional coverage, ensuring that customers in all major manufacturing regions have access to Tiger products with reasonable lead times.

Each Tiger Drylac USA facility operates under the company's global quality management system, which establishes consistent standards for raw material inspection, manufacturing processes, in-process quality control, and final product testing. This standardized quality approach ensures that a Tiger product manufactured at any US facility meets the same specifications and performance standards, enabling customers to receive consistent products regardless of which facility fulfills their order.

Tiger's manufacturing capabilities encompass the full range of powder coating production processes, including premixing, extrusion, grinding, classification, and packaging. The company's extrusion and grinding equipment is configured to produce powders with controlled particle size distributions optimized for different application methods and finish requirements. Tiger's manufacturing technology also supports the production of bonded metallic products, specialty effect powders, and other complex formulations that require specialized processing equipment and expertise.

The multi-site manufacturing model also provides supply chain resilience. If one facility experiences a disruption, production can be shifted to other locations to maintain product availability. This redundancy is particularly important for customers with critical production schedules who cannot afford coating supply interruptions.

Architectural Capabilities and Certification Programs

Tiger Drylac's architectural powder coating capabilities reflect the company's European heritage, where powder coating has been the dominant architectural aluminum finishing technology for decades. Tiger's architectural products are designed to meet both European (Qualicoat, GSB) and North American (AAMA) certification standards, giving the company a unique ability to serve projects with international specification requirements.

Series 58 products target AAMA 2604 high-performance specifications using super-durable polyester resin technology. These products deliver enhanced UV resistance and color retention that significantly outperforms standard polyester, making them suitable for commercial building facades, curtain walls, window frames, and entrance systems. Series 58 products have undergone the required five years of South Florida exposure testing and are available in a comprehensive architectural color palette.

Series 59 products address AAMA 2605 superior performance requirements using fluoropolymer resin technology. These premium architectural products deliver the highest tier of weathering durability available in powder coating format, with color and gloss retention suitable for landmark buildings and high-rise facades. Series 89 encompasses Tiger's premium architectural formulations that may include enhanced aesthetic effects combined with architectural-grade durability.

Tiger's European Qualicoat and GSB certifications provide additional quality assurance for projects with international specification requirements or European design team involvement. Qualicoat Class 1 and Class 2 certifications validate standard and enhanced durability respectively, while GSB Standard and Master certifications provide an alternative European quality framework. Tiger's ability to supply products certified under both European and North American systems simplifies specification for international projects and provides specifiers with multiple independent quality validations.

Tiger supports architectural specification with dedicated technical representatives, project-specific color development, sample panel production, and warranty programs. The company's architectural team works with architects, glazing contractors, and aluminum extruders to ensure correct product selection and application for each project's specific requirements.

How to Specify Tiger Drylac Powder Coatings

Specifying Tiger Drylac powder coatings requires identifying the correct series for the application, selecting the appropriate color from Tiger's standard palette or RAL program, and referencing the Tiger product code in project documentation. The series-based product structure makes it straightforward to match application requirements to the correct product tier.

For architectural projects, the specification should identify the Tiger series — Series 58 for AAMA 2604 or Series 59 for AAMA 2605 — along with the specific color reference, finish type, and gloss level. A typical architectural specification might read: Tiger Drylac Series 59 FEVE fluoropolymer, AAMA 2605 compliant, RAL 7016 Anthracite Gray, semi-gloss smooth finish, minimum 2.5 mil film thickness. For projects requiring Qualicoat or GSB certification, include the applicable European standard alongside or in place of the AAMA reference.

For industrial applications, identify the Tiger series by resin chemistry — Series 09 for epoxy, Series 16 for hybrid, Series 38 or 39 for polyester, Series 44 for urethane, Series 49 for super-durable — and include specific performance requirements. For RAL colors, reference the RAL number and the required Tiger series to ensure the correct chemistry is supplied in the specified RAL shade.

For specialty effects, reference the specific Tiger effect category — candy, designer, fluorescent, glitter, anodized-look, or OGF — along with the Tiger product code. Specialty effects often require specific application parameters and basecoat systems, so referencing the exact Tiger product ensures that the applicator has access to the correct technical data and application instructions.

Tiger Drylac provides technical data sheets for all products, including recommended film thickness ranges, cure schedules, pretreatment requirements, and application parameters. The company's specification support team assists with product selection, custom color development, and specification language for complex projects. Tiger's online color selection tools and physical sample programs support the design and approval process for both architectural and industrial applications.