RRCI meeting and was held prior
to the NCRA Annual Convention and International Roofing
RRCI’s outgoing president, Penny Gift,
opened the meeting by welcoming the attendees and introduced incoming RRCI
president, Tim Leonard of ER Systems. The
annual meeting began with a business meeting that covered 2011 activities and financials, membership vote of new bylaws, and
an election on new board of directors.
Following the business meeting, RRCI
offered three educational and informational
sessions that focused on technical and business issues facing the cool roofing industry.
Dan Haywood of Florida Power & Light
discussed an overview of Florida Power &
Light’s Reflective Roof Coating program
and how it relates to the important role
manufacturers play in making programs
such as this successful. A research associate
professor, Susan Pfiffner with the University
of Tennessee addressed microbial communities that live on roofs in various parts of
North America, and how these organisms
can have major impact on the solar reflectivity. RRCI also provided a panel of speakers that included Craig Waldron of Lonza
and Debra Gill of Dow Chemical Company
and this panel addressed microbial control
and preservatives used in reflective coatings.
The 2012 Annual Meeting ended with
cocktail reception for all attendees to network and discuss the program’s presentations before beginning their week at the
International Roofing Exposition.
Container manufacturer GVU
changes over to BASF paints
Container manufacturer GVU GmbH &
Co. KG has partnered withBASFCoatings
and will begin using the paint maker’s
commercial vehicle product portfolio on
its line of containers.
At its site in the German town of Os-sendorf, GVU produces some 3,000 roll-on/roll-off containers, skips and special
containers. The products are sent from the
site to customers in Germany, Switzerland,
the Netherlands and Austria. Prior to delivery, the containers are coated with
BASF paints.
The containers at GVU are coated with
Left to right, Detlef Fröscher, BASF sales
North; Frank Becker, GVU CEO; and Michael
Blumberg, BASF sales North.
topcoats with a high solids content that
are specially adapted to the requirements
of commercial vehicles.
“Our new steel primer paste makes the
system efficient. That’s one of the features
that convinced our new customer GVU,”
said Karl-Heinz Edinger, who is responsible for BASF’s commercial vehicle business in Germany.
The new steel primer paste turns the
system into a direct to metal (DTM) coating system. For commercial vehicle
paintshops, this provides an economic solution for painting chassis, dump bodies
and container cars with good corrosion
protection and good adhesion.
PPG and NATM present Green
Manufacturing Award to Big
Tex Trailers
PPG Commercial Coatings and the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers
(NATM) honored Big Tex Trailers, a leading utility trailer manufacturer, with the second annual Green Manufacturing Award.
The presentation was made at the NATM’s
24th Annual Convention and Trade Show
held February 8-10, in Fort Worth, Texas,
at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The
award recognizes the best innovation or solution by a member of the NATM that positively affects the environment.
Big Tex Trailers won the award by
procuring the best materials, finding dependable vendor partners, and implementing effective processes to make
significant environmentally responsible
improvements throughout their manufacturing operations. Initiatives included utilizing powder coating to release only
negligible amounts of volatile organic
compounds into the atmosphere, neutralizing wastes produced by paint booths,
greatly reducing greenhouse emissions
and total energy use by 80 percent, and
nearly eliminating the eco-toxic impact on
aquatic and terrestrial environments
around their facilities. Big Tex also
switched to fluorescent lighting to yield
energy savings of up to 50 percent, and is
recycling almost all the materials and
components it uses to help reduce landfill
waste. Big Tex Trailers designated Cypress
Basin Hospice, also in Mount Pleasant, as
the recipient of the cash donation associated with the award.
According to Ron Yarnell, PPG OEM
sales manager, PPG Commercial Coatings
partnered with the NATM two years ago to
institute the Green Manufacturing Award as
part of PPG’s commitment to protecting the
environment. Companies competing for the
award are judged on case studies in which
they demonstrate improved, environmentally conscious performance in their operations. Award criteria include being an
NATM member in good standing and documentation of the green initiative or improvements the company has made.
“PPG and the NATM have a mutual in-
terest in protecting and improving our en-
vironment on a daily basis,” Yarnell said.
“The Green Manufacturing Award recog-
nizes and rewards the programs NATM
members are implementing. Big Tex Trail-
ers’ actions display that it is indeed acting to
protect the environment. We congratulate
the company on its efforts.”
The NATM represents manufacturers
that produce light- and medium-duty trail-
ers as well as suppliers to the industry. The
organization promotes universal recognition
of safety and quality in trailer manufacturing
to the trailer industry and the general public.
NATM works to improve the trailer indus-
try through the promotion of compliance
with its Guidelines and other initiatives. The
association has more than 800 member
companies across the United States, Canada,
Mexico, and other countries.
PPG’s Commercial Coatings group offers a full range of coating technologies
for the commercial transportation and
light industrial markets, including
polyurethanes, alkyds, epoxies, polyurea,
waterborne, pre-treatment chemicals and
