In addition to deals and discounts from numerous industry suppliers, attendees had a chance to learn about offerings from Innovative Tool, Urethane Supply, Rhine Liner, SATA and Autochem. In addition to education about product, highlights from the seminars included Fusor Bumper Repair (worth I-CAR points), 3M’s Standard Operating Procedures, designed to enable collision facilities to consistently product quality repairs and two seminars from AkzoNobel.

 

 

Akzo Tech: What’s New was lead by Jerry Grenier and detailed the new products on offer from AkzoNobel. These include the company’s new UV primer, the new LV650 basecoat/topcoat system for the truck and bus market and the company’s new surfacer primer. In addition, Grenier also outlined two new products that are each innovative in their own way.

 

The first, stickerfix, is essentially a small sheet of plastic that can be painted while refinishing a customer’s vehicle. This ensures an accurate colour match. Customers can use AkzoNobel’s stickerfix to easily repair small scratches.  It’s a step-up from the old bottle of touch-up paint, which the introduction of waterborne coatings made into an unsuitable solution for various reasons.

 

“Stickerfix gives you the option of letting your customers do their own touch-ups again,” said Grenier. “You paint it at the time the vehicle is painted, and you can use it as a value-add or sell it to the customer. It’s up to you.”

 

Grenier also outlined AkzoNobel’s new Click & Go system. Click & Go is a pre-measured disposable clearcoat system. It’s a single unit that contains the clear and hardener in separate pouches. To mix them, the painter simply presses down one side of the big and mixing happens automatically. It’s literally impossible to get the mix wrong. The disposable unit clips onto a special adapter which is then attached to the spray gun. The adapter works with SATA, DeVilbiss/Tekna and Iwata guns (with the exception of the Supernova).

 

The advantages to a system like this are both numerous and obvious, but that only scratches the surface. For example, the Click & Go pouches are considerably thinner than the traditional round cup, allowing the painter to more easily view the application.

 

As Jamie Treschak of Treschak Enterprises points out, the system may have another for shops using it.

 

“I think one of the more interesting things about it is that, because it’s a sealed unit, it’s easier to bill as a line item when you’re submitting an invoice,” he says. “There’s no need to estimate. You know exactly how many of these pouches you used.”

 

A 400 ml pouch of Click & Go is about enough to do three panels. You can see the system in action using the player below.

 

AkzoNobel’s other seminar was focused on creating customer value and reducing waste. Lead by Michel Guerrette of AkzoNobel, the seminar highlighted AkzoNobel’s Lean Management system, a comprehensive approach to lean designed specifically for the collision industry. Called Process Centered Environment, or PCE, the new system has been attracting a lot of positive attention.