Steelpaint has secured its first large-scale civil engineering application in Germany for its Stelcatec corrosion-protection technology, supplying the single-coat system for the façade steelwork of the DERTour Deutschland GmbH office building in Frankfurt am Main.

The project is being delivered by Steelpaint’s long-standing application partner Heinrich Schmid GmbH & Co. KG, which was contracted to carry out the coating works for the DERTour building.

About 1,600m² of steel surface is being protected using Stelcatec-L-1NE, applied as a single 150µm coat in RAL 6027. The system was selected following Heinrich Schmid’s experience with the coating in other industrial market segments. The technology provides long-term corrosion protection while reducing application complexity compared with conventional multi-coat civil engineering coating systems.

Surface preparation for the project has included mechanical grinding to PSt2 and abrasive blasting to PSa 2, creating a suitable substrate for the one-coat application. Steelpaint said the specification reflects a balance between durability and practical application.

While Steelpaint is best known for supplying coatings to marine, offshore and hydraulic engineering sectors, the Frankfurt project represents a significant step in extending Stelcatec into the German civil engineering market. The company said the project’s scale and visibility make it an important reference for future structural steel applications.

According to Steelpaint, a key factor in the system’s selection was its suitability for application during late autumn and winter. Conventional multi-coat systems often require extensive scaffold encapsulation, heating and humidity control to achieve acceptable curing conditions in cold and damp weather.

“The project is being carried during a period that is typically unfavourable for external coatings work,” says Steelpaint director Frank Müller. “Stelcatec is designed to expand the workable application window, allowing steel protection to proceed without the need for full scaffold enclosure or artificial climate control. This simplifies application and helps maintain project schedules.”

“From an applicator’s perspective, reducing the number of coats and environmental controls required can have a direct impact on logistics, scheduling and overall costs,” adds Florian Stark, team leader at Heinrich Schmid. “On this project, the system has enabled steady progress under challenging seasonal conditions.”

Steelpaint said the contract demonstrates how coating technologies developed for harsh industrial environments can be transferred into civil engineering applications where construction timelines, access constraints and weather exposure are critical considerations.

“This project shows that a one-coat corrosion protection system can be deployed at meaningful scale on a civil engineering façade in Germany,” Müller says. “It supports our strategy of broadening Stelcatec’s application beyond traditional marine and hydraulic markets into building and infrastructure projects.”

DERTour Deutschland, part of the DERTour Group, is one of Germany’s largest travel groups, operating across tour operating, travel agency and destination management activities. The Frankfurt am Main building serves as a key office location for the company’s German operations and is designed as a modern administrative workplace with a steel-intensive façade construction.

The corrosion protection work forms part of a wider building renewal program. External coatings works started in September and is scheduled for completion in March 2026.