Finishing and aesthetic capabilities of Nigerian metal fabrication companies:case study of Ibadan, southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

Poor finishing and aesthetic capabilities of metal fabrication companies in Nigeria have been identified as a major cause of the poor acceptance of locally fabricated products. This study was aimed at assessing some finishing and aesthetic capabilities of Nigerian companies.Five companies were selected for analysis. Their equivalent imported substitutes were identified for comparison.Ten basic operations(painting, electroplating, metal spraying, lapping, super finishing, abrasive belt grinding, buffing, parkerizing, polishing and chemical conversion coating) for accomplishing the three finishing processes (surface cleaning, surface smoothing and surface coating) on a given metal product were identified. Standard equipment types required for the operations were identified from the literature. The fabrication methods, practices and equipment types used by the companies to carry out the operations were compared with industry standards. The physical structures and aesthetics of the product were compared to the imported substitutes. The manpower level of each company based on the age, educational status, years of experience, familarity with finishing operation of workers was also evaluated. On the average the companies make only 40% of the standard finishing operation identified from the literature, 50% of the workers have post secondary school qualification and 50% have over 5 years experience on the job. Investment in equipment and technology is generally poor. It is concluded that comparatively, local metal fabricators lack the required finishing and aesthetics capabilities in area of equipment and manpower skills.