A Project to Be Remembered: An Impactful Challenge

A unique challenge arose for Mine Colours when STIHL Inc., a global leader in outdoor power equipment, inquired about a special product to celebrate its 50th anniversary of U.S. manufacturing operations.

To commemorate this impressive milestone, they wanted to produce gold-colored string trimmer lines for internal distribution among colleagues and partners as a token of appreciation and remembrance.

It was a captivating project, to say the least, but it also presented several technical difficulties because gold colorants cannot withstand multiple processes with high temperatures.

This project required the colorant to withstand high heat treatment, not just once but twice—once during the extrusion of the colorant and again during the manufacturing of the trimmer line.

None of our 30,000 standard colors matched the requirements for such a technical project. Therefore, we began collaborating with STIHL’s engineers to better understand their processes and temperature ranges.

Thanks to the immense experience of our colorists and polymer engineers, we were able to deliver a sample. Little did we know that we weren’t the only color house attempting this challenge. A few weeks later, we were thrilled to learn that our colorant not only passed the tests but also looked the best.

After the order was placed, we managed to manufacture and deliver the product halfway across the world in less than a week.

We are grateful to STIHL for allowing us to be part of such a significant milestone, and we look forward to continuing to deliver excellence.