The increased number of RAL colours for plastics has made a massive impact to consumer choice for window and door colours. Instead of just the bog standard red, blue, green, black and white etc customers now have a much larger range of shades to choose from and can match a colour from a paint or other coloured object if they know the RAL number for it.
Back in 1925 the “Reichs-Ausschuss für Lieferbedingungen” – RAL – (Committee of the German Reich for Terms and Conditions of Sale) was established. Founded by the Government and Private Sector, RAL’s initial purpose was to standardise technical specifications and ensure consistancy in manufacturing and distribution. In essence the introduction of RAL has prevented problems when mixing colours and ensures sample materials are a true likening to the end product.
Today RAL is a universally accepted colour code system and the palette of colours has grown massively from the initial 40 to now around 2325 with approximately 300 colours for plastics. The colour system is widely used in Architecture, Construction, Road Safety and Industry. With the increase in the number of RAL colours for plastic it means that our customers can now be very specific about their colour shade option for a door or a window. Instead of requsting just green or light green/dark green they are able to pick a specific shade of green, like you would when to go to a DIY store to pick a tin of paint. As consumers we love choice! What better way to personalise the look of door or a window than to pick a specific colour shade that suits you and your home.
RAL number 6005 – Green. This was matched by a customer from the RAL colour of a tin of paint that they had used to paint their wooden door which they wanted to replace with a wood grain plastic one . A fair description of the colour would be racing green but a manufacturers interpretation of Racing Green varies greatly. The only way to ensure the exact colour match was to establish the RAL number and then the door was tailor made in the RAL colour .