AkzoNobel Opens
RD&I Center for
Coatings in U.S.
AkzoNobel has opened a new
research, development and innovation
(RD&I) center in Strongsville, Ohio, in
the United States. The $10 million facility will support several of the company’s
Performance Coatings businesses, including coil, extrusion and packaging
coatings.
Featuring full testing, scale-up and
analytical capabilities, it will house
more than 120 staff, including 65 highly
trained scientists and technicians.
Commenting on the opening, AB
Ghosh, managing director of AkzoNobel’s
Metal Coatings business, said: “By ex-
panding our facility in Strongsville, we
are providing a central, state-of-the-art
technical resource for our businesses in
North America, creating the critical mass
for effective RD&I to more efficiently
support our customers. The facility will
also enable us to focus on further improv-
ing the performance and sustainability of
Added Performance Coatings RD&I
Director, Klaas Kruithof: “This is a sig-
nificant investment which underlines our
focus on technology and product innova-
tion, as well as our commitment to the
North American market. It will be an in-
tegral part of our global RD&I function
and will directly contribute to our overall
growth plans.”
The Strongsville center is the latest
in a series of investments to strengthen
AkzoNobel’s research capabilities in the
region. The company recently announced
that it is investing around € 3 million ($3.4
million) to expand its RD&I capabilities
in Houston, Texas. The Houston facil-
ity will support the company’s Protective
Coatings, Marine Coatings and Specialty
Coatings businesses.
PPG Helps Renovate
Primary School as Part of its
COLORFUL COMMUNITIES
Project
PPG Industries announced the completion of a COLORFUL COMMUNITIES
project in Zhangjiagang, China, that
helped to revitalize the Nansha Primary
School as part of its global charitable-giving effort. The Colorful Communities
program provides PPG employee volunteers and products along with financial
contributions to bring color and vitality
to communities where the company operates around the world. Launched earlier
this year, the program increases PPG’s
commitment to invest in communities
by adding $10 million to support efforts
made during a 10-year period.
The project brought together nearly
170 volunteers – including PPG employees from the Zhangjiagang resin
manufacturing site and their families,
along with students and faculty of the
Zhangjiagang Nansha Primary School
– who used MASTER’S MARK paint
by PPG to renovate and decorate the
school’s nearly 1,000-square-meter
playground fence. PPG awarded a grant
of more than $40,000 to the TEDA
Charity Association to support this revitalization project.
Volunteers used the Master’s Mark
paint to add colorful images to the
school’s playground fence. In addition to
adding sports-themed designs and a slo-
gan on the main wall, volunteers painted
a mural themed “I Love My School” at
one corner of the playground.
“It was a meaningful day for the stu-
dents, our employees and PPG,” said Kent
Chen, manager of PPG’s Zhangjiagang
plant. “Children are society’s future. We
are pleased to help them create a better
campus environment. Overall, with the
participation and cooperation required to
complete the task, this was an excellent
opportunity to enhance our teamwork
and spirit while promoting PPG’s corpo-
rate social responsibility.”
More than 1,200 students cur-
rently attend the century-old
Zhangjiagang Nansha Primary School.
The Zhangjiagang event is the second
Colorful Communities project in China,
following a project PPG completed at the
Tianjin TEDA Art Center in September.
The Zhangjiagang site is PPG’s first
resin plant in China, providing advanced
resin products to both PPG coatings businesses and outside customers in China
and across the Asia Pacific region since it
started operating in 2011.
“As a major production base and
a key region of investment for PPG,
Zhangjiagang was selected for our second
Colorful Communities event in China,”
said Cathy Yan, PPG general manager,
corporate and government affairs, Asia
Pacific. “PPG has long been committed to
supporting the communities where it has
a presence, and in the future we will extend this revitalization program to more
