designed to be suitable for even
the harshest of environments.
“By pairing Hempel and
Axalta’s product offerings,
we offer the gas-pipe industry an unparalleled technology and competitiveness platform,” explained Martin
Miller, Hempel U.S.A. Downstream
segment manager.
PPG Completes $5 Million
Expansion of Wuppertal,
Germany, Coatings Plant
PPG Industries recently completed a $5
million expansion at its coatings manufacturing facility in Wuppertal, Germany.
The project added equipment to existing
buildings on the campus, supporting up
to a 35 percent increase in annual production capacity of environmentally
sustainable waterborne coatings for automotive and industrial applications. The
facility, which employs more than 190
people, plans to hire employees to manage the increased capacity.
The additional capacity will enable
PPG to meet increasing demand for its
waterborne coatings by automotive
manufacturers and industrial customers in the region. Waterborne coatings use water as a base instead of the
chemical solvents used in traditional
coatings. In addition to a heightened
focus throughout Europe on using
sustainable products and practices,
waterborne-coatings demand is being
driven by adoption of compact-paint-process technologies by automotive
manufacturers in Europe. Compact
paint processes reduce the number of
st EPS needed to paint a vehicle, enabling manufacturers to reduce energy
used during the process and downsize
the space required for the paint process
in a manufacturing facility.
“Waterborne coatings offer manufac-
turers a more sustainable alternative to
typical solvent-based coatings by reduc-
ing volatile organic compounds,” said
Jean-Marie Greindl, vice president, auto-
motive original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) coatings, Europe, Middle East
and Africa (EMEA), and president, PPG
EMEA. “PPG has been at the forefront of
this technology throughout its evolution
and holds a leading position in this seg-
ment in Europe.”
AkzoNobel Expands
Performance Coatings
Research Facility in Houston
AkzoNobel Performance Coatings is investing approximately € 3 million ($3.4
million) to expand its research and development facilities in Houston, Texas.
The upgraded facility will support the
company’s Protective Coatings, Marine
Coatings and Specialty Coatings businesses. Completion is due in early 2016.
“The expanded facility will provide
a central, state-of-the-art technical resource for our businesses in the US, creating the critical mass for effective R&D
to efficiently support our customers,”
said Aidan Mernin, RD&I Director for
Protective Coatings.
The expanded facility will be able to
house up to 35 laboratory staff, with 30
skilled technologists employed initially.
Key capabilities will include a dedicated area for experimental paint making,
a modern paint application laboratory
and environmentally controlled drying
areas for conditioning of test panels.
Enhanced chemical resistance testing
will also be available to support the
Ceilcote and Enviroline linings ranges in
North America.
“This investment underlines our focus
on technology and product innovation
and providing technical support for our
customers,” said Mauricio Bannwart,
managing director of AkzoNobel’s
Protective Coatings business. “It will be
an integral part of our global RD&I function and will directly contribute to our
overall growth plans.”
U.S. Green Building Council
Announces New Alignment
with CALGreen
The U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC) announced the availability of a
new path forward for California project
developers seeking LEED (Leadership
in Energy & Environmental Design)
certification. This announcement comes
in the midst of USGBC’s annual midyear conference for community leaders,
Convergence, taking place from June
28–July 1 in San Diego. Starting July
1, nonresidential projects in California
subject to the mandatory 2013
California Green Building Standards
Code (CALGreen) requirements will be
able to use an alternative documentation path for LEED. CALGreen is the
nation’s first statewide mandatory green
building code, covering nearly all residential and nonresidential construction
in California. This new path will make
beyond-code green building leadership
even more accessible as the state continues to set more aggressive targets for
energy and water efficiency.
“From public policy to volunteer en-
gagement to business actions, California
is a standard bearer for excellence in
green building market transformation,”
said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding
chair, USGBC. “As we come together as
a community of experts, professionals,
advocates and leaders for Convergence
in San Diego this week, we are proud to
offer more streamlined ways for proj-
ects to demonstrate green building lead-
ership in California.”
The alternative documentation path
outlines a set of documents that projects
may provide in lieu of standard LEED
documentation in order to demonstrate
LEED compliance. The alternative doc-
umentation path will be available for
use with measures related to indoor
water use reduction, refrigerant man-
agement, the storage and collection of
recyclables, construction waste man-
agement and the use of low-emitting
paints and adhesives.
“The development and release of
this set of alternative documentation
pathways is a significant step in the co-evolution of LEED and green building
codes,” said Jeremy Sigmon, director of
Technical Policy, USGBC. “Leveraging
California’s code infrastructure and the
obligations of licensed professionals to
adhere to the laws of the land, these
new streamlined documentation options offer cost savings to project teams
while maintaining the quality and rigor
of LEED. In turn, projects already designing and building to the CALGreen
code will find LEED and its many benefits more readily within reach.” CW
