Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — February 22, 2016 — PPG has just announced it has completed a significant investment to its primary research and development facility for paint and coatings. Part of the upgrades include facilities for simulating the wide variety of environmental conditions experienced by refinish customers and a new automotive refinish training centre.
The investment also includes increased laboratory and testing space and upgraded equipment that improves technical capabilities.
The company invested a total of $7.8 million to upgrade its Coatings Innovation Center in Allison Park, Pennsylvania. According to the company, the revamped facility enhances PPG’s resources for creating and testing sealants, adhesives and pretreatment solutions; for simulating the environments where customers use its automotive and industrial paints and coatings; and for training distributors, painters and collision repair professionals to successfully use the company’s automotive refinish coatings.
“The PPG Coatings Innovation Center continues to provide an elite research and development environment where PPG scientists can ensure our customers have access to the most inventive coatings solutions,” said David Bem, PPG Vice President, Science and Technology, and Chief Technology Officer-Elect. “Many times, the breakthroughs that help us to deliver colour, durability and functionality in coatings for everything from cars and trucks to consumer electronics and heavy machinery begin at our Coatings Innovation Center.”
The investment at PPG’s Coatings Innovation Center enhances three main areas:
– A completely renovated, 9,000 sq. ft. automotive refinish training centre now provides state-of-the art facilities, including two new spray booths, a prep station, upgraded equipment and two large classrooms where collision repair professionals can learn about PPG products and application techniques.
– The facility’s renovated coatings application centre provides two robotic spray booths with environmental controls for variable temperature, humidity and airflow. The booths enable PPG to replicate the manufacturing environments of customers around the world to test the application of automotive, industrial and performance coatings products under a wide range of conditions, such as relative humidity ranging from 15 percent to 95 percent.
– Space has been converted to laboratories for synthesis, adhesives and sealants, and pretreatment solutions to accommodate increased staffing and upgraded equipment that support PPG’s growing development needs in these areas.
For more information, please visit ppg.com.
