Axalta Coating Systems has begun construction on a new Asia-Pacific R&D
and Technology Center. The new facility, which has been approved by
Axalta’s Board of Directors, will be located in Shanghai’s Minhang Industrial
Development District. The Center will
feature product development and application laboratories as well as technical
support capabilities that will serve the
company’s global light vehicle OEM,
commercial vehicle, refinish and industrial customers. The new facility, which is
scheduled to open in the second quarter
of 2016, will also house the company’s
global refinish color development center
and a new training center for the company’s refinish customers.
The new 15,500 m2 facility will be
designed for the more than 500 Axalta
personnel engaged in R&D, product development and technology support across
the Asia-Pacific region. The new facility
will enable Axalta to build on its legacy
of innovation and capitalize on its existing regional R&D network based in
China. Today, Axalta has R&D and technology capabilities as well as a customer
training center in Shanghai, a new OEM
technology development center adjacent
to the company’s manufacturing center
in the Jiading district of Shanghai, and a
technology center within the company’s
operations center in Changchun. The
new facility will become Axalta’s largest technology center in Asia-Pacific and
join Axalta’s global R&D and laboratory
network, integrating development capabilities in the region with those in Europe,
Latin America and the United States.
“This new facility in Shanghai will help
us meet the growing demand for innova-
tive coatings in the global market and es-
pecially those of our expanding customer
base in China,” explained Charlie Shaver,
Axalta chairman and CEO. “The new
facility will enable Axalta to streamline
our ability to rapidly develop world-class
products with benefits that include more
advanced protective properties, superior
temperature performance and additional
durability. We’ve been a pioneer in the
coatings industry, and our new Shanghai
center will keep us in the vanguard of
product innovation and development.”
The new laboratory will house the
latest generation paint formulation,
color development, dispersion, resin de-
velopment, spray application and ana-
lytical characterization facilities, further
strengthening Axalta’s position as a pre-
mier coatings solution provider. With
well-designed facilities and a focus on op-
timum work flow, the R&D center will be
engineered to facilitate fast, high-quality
product development that will help en-
hance productivity for Axalta customers
in the region and around the world.
“With this new center, Axalta will
be positioned to develop and bring to
the Chinese market and the region the
most advanced coatings products in the
world,” said Barry Snyder, Axalta’s senior
vice president and chief technology offi-
cer. “We envision that leading edge tech-
nology developments from China will
also flow outwards from the region to
find their way into products used by our
customers in the rest of the world. In this
way no matter where our global custom-
ers call home or operate, they will benefit
from our global perspective.”
AkzoNobel Brings Color
Back to Historic Street in
Turkey
Residents of Hatay in Turkey have joined
together with volunteers and AkzoNobel’s
Marshall paint brand to transform an
area of their historic neighborhood.
Part of the company’s global “Let’s
Colour” initiative, the recent event involved painting several buildings on the
world’s first colonnaded street. As well
as helping to preserve the rich heritage of
the famous district, the project also highlighted the important role color can play
in making cities more human.
“We truly believe that we can motivate and inspire people through the
power of color,” said Marshall Country
director Petros Katsampouris, who
joined in the activities on Kırk Asırlık
Türk Yurdu Street. “Cities are much
more than just buildings. They are invaluable and inspiring in terms of the
heritage they offer and Hatay is nothing
short of a true gem, having hosted 13
civilizations in its long history.”
Renowned for its cultural diversity,
Kırk Asırlık Türk Yurdu Street – which
was also the site of the world’s first street
lighting – is the latest addition to a series
of Let’s Colour events that have been held
in Turkey since 2010. All the buildings
were coated with Marshall Masterpro
pure acrylic water-based exterior paint,
which offers superior durability and
long-lasting color.
Maersk Applies Valspar’s
Waterborne Coating on its
Dry Containers
Maersk Container Industry’s factory in
Dongguan, China has begun full produc-
tion of dry containers coated with Valspar
Aquaguard, a zinc-free waterborne coat-
ing solution that provides industry-lead-
ing protection against corrosion. Maersk
and Valspar began trial production in
2014 at this facility in southern China,
one of the largest container manufactur-
ing locations in the world with produc-
tion of 220,000 twenty-foot equivalent
units (TEU) dry containers annually.
Valspar has partnered with Maersk
and other customers to implement water-
borne solutions to meet global environ-
mental requirements. Aquaguard is an
innovative two-coat, 100 percent water-
borne coating system that reduces VOCs
by up to 94 percent, improves corrosion
performance, and lowers emissions to
reduce the overall environmental foot-
print. The combination of Aquaguard’s
high-density chemical adhesion and an-
ticorrosive properties provides superior
Axalta Builds New Asia-Pacific
R&D Technology Center in Shanghai
