Axalta Coating Systems won two industry awards for its sustainable High Solids 3-Wet and Eco-Concept waterborne coating systems at the SURCAR International Awards 2016. Both advanced technologies received awards in the Environmental Footprint category: the High Solids 3-Wet case study received the Air Emission Award, while the Eco-Concept primerless waterborne case study received the Energy Saving Award.
SURCAR, a leading international automotive body finishing congress, has been active annually for more than 50 years. The event brings leading automotive-related companies and industry experts together to share experiences and discuss industry trends. SURCAR’s International Awards aim to identify, promote and reward the most innovative solutions in the value chain of the international automotive industry. The awards selection process is conducted by a committee comprised of selected industry experts drawn from around the world.
“Getting not one, but two industry awards this year is great recognition of our efforts to develop innovative coating systems for our customers. The awards pave the way for our future work to educate and promote these sustainable solutions that will enable OEMs and body shops to be more productive, reduce waste, save energy and operating costs, and thus contribute to sustainable development of the automotive industry in China,” said Luke Lu, vice president of Axalta and president of Axalta’s operations in greater China. “It’s particularly satisfying to receive dual awards this year as we celebrate Axalta’s 150th year in the coatings industry. We thank SURCAR’s esteemed panel of judges for recognizing our innovations in creating high-performance, sustainable coating systems.”
In its two entries to the SURCAR International Awards, Axalta submitted reports and data based on automotive customers’ operations to demonstrate the environmental benefits of using these two coating systems. The goal of both systems is to enable customers to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to levels which not only meet, but exceed the requirements established by China’s new VOC regulation of less than 35 g/m2 of VOCs. Another goal of the two systems is to reduce energy consumption by 15 percent on the production line. These results are achieved by reducing curing temperatures, eliminating application and curing steps, or a combination of both.
