The packaging beverage China team (Victor Chen, Jeff Zhu, Danhof Lee, Huang Ping, Rex Law) began working with Huadong United Can in November 2004. After 6 months of hard work, including extensive qualification trials and a lot of sleepless nights, PPG has successfully replaced Quaker as the supplier of Lubricant and Coolant systems at Huadong United Can. This is a worldwide first for PPG Packaging in this market segment. The team is now ready to take on their next target - Shanghai United Can - so stay tuned.

Whilst PPG is already a major supplier of beverage coatings in North Asia, it has now achieved its first commercial order for beverage varnish in South East Asia. A team of Melvin Niw, Regional Technical Sales Assistant Manager, Rex Law, Pum Chinthanawong and Huang Ping has worked tirelessly since August 2004 to realize this success for PPG, receiving a commercial order in May 2005 from Crown Hanoi. PPG 3880 varnish provides superior can to can abrasion performance allowing cans to be transported on the uneven roads of Vietnam.

The Refinish business has recently initiated the "Service Manager Club" in response to recent aggressive marketing tactics from PPG's competitor Sikken which have targeted PPG GRS and Autocolor's 4S Stations in Zhengjiang Province in China. Membership of the club is open to current and past PPG customers. The Club offers activities, including aftermarket-services related training courses, exclusive promotions and gifts, as well as regular leisure activities and sightseeing, and provides a forum for people in the industry to meet and exchange experiences. Club membership, as well as creating a sense of belonging, is being positioned as implying business success and a privileged status. The fringe benefits and status associated with Club membership provide a rationale to be a loyal customer of PPG.

The first activity of the Service Manager Club was held successfully in Thousand Lake in Hangzhou, Zhengjiang, PRC on May 20 and 21. More than 70 workshop managers and owners attended training on 'How to effectively manage your workshop'. An intensive first day meeting and exercise was followed on the second day by a lake cruise. Refinish China is thus effectively combining relationship-building and brand-reinforcement, offering an approach to marketing that other PPG businesses can learn from.


By James Yang, Director of Sales, Refinish China

At the very beginning, we did not realize that a fruitless color matching efforts we put in BJ taxi colors for DPCA would eventually bring the businesses back to us, except this time is with one other customer: FAW-VW. When opportunity knocks on the door, only hard working ones gets the opportunity.

In Dec, 2004, PPG was requested by DPCA to match the colors for BJ taxi in very limited time frame and to match unusual colors. The initial panels submitted to Prof. Su, the designer of BJ taxi colors, were declined. During the subsequent color matching trials after the initial rejection, Prof. Su and DPCA technical team visited PPG TJ plant to supervise and to advise the processes in order to speed up on the colors matching process. During their visit, PPG lab people worked till mid night every night to meet the demands and fulfill the requests. The capacity, enthusiasm and devoted attitude of PPG lab technicians impressed Professor Su and DPCA team profoundly. At the end of the trial, Prof. Su approved the color panels and gave us her very sincere appraisal: People in PPG respect and enjoy their work than the other competitors she met. The attitudes reflected in PPG's working ethics and the flexibility given to the customers. In terms of color matching, we met her demands and beyond by coming up with vivid choices.

FAW-VW, DPCA and Hyundai entered the bid for Beijing new taxi project in order to meet the demands of 2008 Olympics Game. The taxi is recognized as the first impression made to the visitors to Beijing during their trips. When Beijing Municipal Government announced the project to overhaul the looks of Beijing taxis with new colors, PPG, BASF and KCC were amount the potential suppliers for the specifications of the new taxi coatings. Working with Prof. Su closely, PPG was the first paint supplier to obtain the approval for the first 5 Beijing taxi colors, namely Senior Yellow, Spring Green, Summer Red, Autumn Blue and Winter Purple. Prof Su spoke highly on PPG and its people made strong impression to the management of FAW-VW, one of the potential suppliers for the new taxi car models. With the push effect from our sales people, FAW-VW management

Pictures: New Beijing taxis in blue/yellow
and green/yellow PPG coatings on.

made a visit to PPG Tianjin plant. Decisions to have PPG supplying the taxi coatings and order placement arrived on the same day of the visit. PPG finally succeeded entering a relationship with FAW-VW by supplying new taxi colors. BASF decided to withdraw from the competition on the taxi colors subsequently. PPG matched the 6th color (South Red) within two days after BASF's retreat. PPG's responsiveness on the color matching helped FAW-VW out-bid Hyundai and won the orders from a large Beijing taxi company New Moon under the conditions where Hyundai and KCC has the support of BJ government. Further more, for the newest three colors (Gray White, Black and Dark Green), Prof. Su agreed that as soon as PPG obtained colors approval and the raw materials ready, she will ask BJ transportation management bureau to release the colors to the market where FAW-VW and PPG join efforts will certainly prevail on getting other taxi companies to endorse FAW-VW cars with PPG coatings than KCC and Hyundai joined efforts.
Excellent team work between lab and sales people, with belief in what can be achieved is the formula to secure our success.

A follow-up meeting was held on May 17th in Bangkok, Thailand, where representatives from Aerospace, Automotive, Industrial, Packaging, Refinish, and Human Resources organizations came together to work on goals for cross SBU technical, sales and marketing, manufacturing and supply chain, and support services synergies and productivity savings in the South-East Asia region. By June, the team will finalize "SMART" goals for 2005 for such cost savings initiatives. The Bangkok meeting, attended by Viktor Sekmakas, Managing Director, Coatings Asia Pacific, showed what the spirit of "One PPG" can do in the ASEAN region as the SBUs soon forge into the 2006 planning process with revenues exceeding US$ 100 Million as a region.

On June 13th, PPG first High Performance Coatings (HPC) center in Asia was born in Tianjin Economic Development Zone in Tianjin, China. The center will provide color matching, mixing and manufacturing and sales support for decorative and protective coatings. Covered in sky blue and sunny yellow hues along with edgy design, the center adds a refreshing sense of newness to our 10 years Tianjin plant in China. The opening ceremony was orchestrated with red carpet, ribbon cutting, Chinese lion dance, fire crackers, and speeches by the Vice Chairman of TEDA Chamber of Commence and PPG International Business Director of Architectural Coatings. The ceremony was attended by TEDA Chamber of Commence, TEDA government officials, journalists from local TV stations, newspapers and radio stations in addition to PPG Tianjin Plant employees. On June 14th, a seminar was held to provide product & service knowledge to the local architects, applicators and contractors.

The focus of the HPC center is to first service the local Industrial plants facilities and eventually to all construction projects. With offering customers Just-in-Time delivery capability and professional coatings consultations, PPG demonstrates commitments to develop Architectural Coatings business in China to serve the increasing needs for better quality coatings. The center is expected to cover the radius of Northern China and supplies paints for residential, commercial, industrial structures and equipment.

With the efforts promoting cross-SBU initiative, the HPC center is aiming to expand PPG product portfolio offer to existing and potential customers of all SBUs to protect their manufacturing facilities and equipment. All employees are encouraged to pass on sales leads and information of customers' maintenance and new plant constructions to Architectural Coatings sales team to support cross-SBU efforts. Employees purchase for personal use can also enjoy favorable prices through internal sales. For further information on products and pass leads for sales, please contact sales team at 86 (22)25323470 extension 577.

By Mary Kiang,
Construction Projects & HPC Manager;
Architectural Coatings Asia

This competition, which begins shortly, promotes the 'One PPG' concept in all SBUs in Asia Pacific Region. We are one team and one family across all functions and departments. The essence of the campaign is to encourage cross SBU efforts to market our products in all segments that we participate in. Our goal is to excel in all markets by cross-selling and up-selling to our existing and potential customers in coated products and beyond.

To ensconce the 'One PPG' concept, the China Human Resources team is launching a 'Committed to One' Presentation Competition which invites all employees in China to enter. The presentation must be done in English only and the theme of the competition is to elaborate on the "ONE PPG" concept and what it means to you the presenter. It's important to come up with original ideas and interpretations for 'One PPG' and present them in an innovative way. It's also essential to find as many ideas on how SBUs can cooperate and work as one to achieve our goals.

The contest also aims to promote better interpersonal skills and business etiquette, as well as to enhance employees' English & presentation skills. All employees in China are welcomed to form teams of three to enter the competition. All SBUs in China at the different locations are encouraged to form at least one team to enter the contest.

The dates and sites for the initial round of competition will be announced shortly. Winning teams from the initial contests will meet for the Finals in May 0f 2006. The purpose of the competition is also to enhance overall communication skills for conducting business while using this opportunity to practice our presentation skills in English. A panel of five Judges from different functions will evaluate and award the champions based on creativity and innovation as well as personal grooming and English presentation skills. In addition, the Awards will be given for Best Presentation Team, Best Organized, Best Writer, and for overall Team Effectiveness.

China Human Resources Department will soon announce the details and guidelines of the competition.

Don't wait, prepare now! Winning is in hands of people who act.

In Tokyo, teen trends come and go faster than bullet trains. As soon as Sanrio's My Melody cell phone straps were all the rage, it-girls in Shibuya wouldn't be caught dead with them. For companies that cater to these kogals, spotting the next fad is like throwing udon against the folding screen to see what sticks. Luckily, the cool-hunters at GirlsLab (www.girlslab.com) discovered a way to divine what's cute and hip. The research firm is working with companies like Namco (for videogames), Lotte (confectioner) and Wacoal (under garments) to find out what makes the trend setter - the teens tick.

From the research raw data, it is clear that color is the predominated factors when it comes to teens shopping for MP3, mobile phones to probably all gadgets including laptops. The increasing demands from electronic manufacturers and mobile phone makers on colors and styling came with their products, in additional to physical attributes and applications, is thrusting all coating suppliers participated in the segment to conjure up with new exciting colors, touches of the finish, as well as the substrates coatings can be applied in shorter product life cycles.

China as the manufacturing floor for the world is the first place to see how the dreams and concepts from designers turned into realities. Color Styling Studio, located in China Suzhou Packaging plant, is first efforts put in to meet the growing numbers of manufacturing facilities in China set up by our global accounts. Two newly hired color stylists Jessica Zhang and , based in Suzhou and Pusun respectively, are working with the US and Europe styling labs to visualize what designers of the electronic manufacturers conceived of. A second styling studio presently under construction is estimated to be in services by end August, 2005 in Tianjin plant. Watch out for newest colors, maybe you are looking at a new phone with florescent pink from PPG.

To those unfamiliar with the industry, electrocoating may appear to be a relatively recent development as a highly technical method of applying a coating to a conductive substrate. In truth, the birth of large-scale, commercial electrocoating occurred in 1961 when Dr. George Brewer and the Ford Motor Company began coating steel wheels and then automobile bodies. For the first time, a shape as large and complex as an automobile body was completely primed in about two minutes. Even hard-to-coat, recessed areas were coated, a feat that existing spray-applied coatings could not accomplish.

In the following years, the technology was refined continually with new chemistries and treating processes that expanded the products that could be coated and the industries that could utilize electrocoating. Cathodic technology was introduced in 1971, followed by cathodic primers for automobiles in 1976. By the 1980s, high-build, super-smooth primers and high performance acrylic systems were developed, expanding the use of electrocoating. In the 1990s, cathodic technology was optimized for environmental and corrosion performance, including high edge coverage formulations for demanding end uses such as frames and heat exchangers.

In each decade, with each technological advancement, electrocoat has exceeded the demands of these industries. It is, therefore, logical to believe that during the 2000s, electrodeposition will be setting the pace by continually extending the limits of product quality, economic control, operational reliability, as well as environmental compliance through advances in technology.

Electrocoating is a process in which electrically charged particles are deposited out of a water suspension to coat a conductive part. The process works on the principle of "opposites attract." In cathodic electrocoating, the part to be coated is given a negative charge, attracting positively charged paint particles. During the electrocoat process (Figure 1), paint is applied to a part at a certain film thickness, which is regulated by the amount of voltage applied. The deposition is self-limiting and slows down as the applied coating electrically insulates the part. Electrocoat solids deposit initially in the areas closest to the counter electrode and, as these areas become insulated to current, solids are forced into more recessed, bare metal areas to provide complete coverage. This phenomenon is known as throwpower and is a critical aspect of the electrocoat process.

Major advantages of the electrocoat process include: total coverage of complex parts with unsurpassed film uniformity; material transfer efficiencies routinely in 95-99% range; highly-automated systems with excellent productivity and low operating costs; fast line speeds and high part racking densities; very low air and wastewater emissions that foster environmental compliance; and a totally enclosed system leading to a cleaner and safer paint application method.

Government regulations continue to shape the development of new cathodic epoxy electrocoat systems. Passage of the Clean Air Act in 1990 created problems for electrocoat formulators and end users by classifying most of the preferred electrocoat solvents in use as hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Complex permitting guidelines have made planning for future growth and expansion a costly exercise for many small end users. A variety of federal, state and local legislation restricting or banning the use of heavy metals pushed the introduction of heavy metal-free cathodic epoxy systems with performance properties equal to the needs of the automotive market.

As a result, the latest generations of cathodic epoxy electrocoat offer a wide range of benefits including significantly reduced environmental impact, reduced operational costs, more user-friendly systems and last, but not least, improved cured film performance.

Systems free of heavy metals and HAPs-regulated solvents greatly simplify or perhaps even eliminate the need for regulatory permitting. The associated costs and restrictions on business growth and expansion have been significantly reduced, or in some cases, even avoided. A near-zero VOC paint system has little environmental impact and, additionally, does not require routine adds of solvent to maintain film properties. With the introduction of environmentally friendly formulations, there is no need to keep additional materials in inventory.

To further maximize the user-friendly aspects of electrocoat, one-component cathodic epoxy systems have been introduced. These formulations offer all of the above advantages plus the simplicity of having only one feed material in inventory. A single-component, solvent-free feed eliminates the need for many of the routine tests that are run on older, two-component systems. Keeping track of paint solids is all that is needed to ensure all materials are present in their proper balance. It is still recommended that pH and conductivity of the paint bath be checked regularly as a quick indicator of the health of the system. There is no need for solvent monitoring since none is present. Automated systems can be set up to feed one-component material into the paint tank based on amp/hour readings from the voltage rectifier so that the system can maintain itself, in spec, with little operator involvement.

Today's cathodic epoxy systems are also formulated to have less film shrinkage (weight loss) when curing. This leads directly to more square footage coated at consistent film thickness from each gallon of paint, and a lower operating cost for the end user.

Additional product improvements include reduced cure temperatures that contribute to reduced film shrinkage and save money on energy costs. Full automotive primer performance can be obtained at cure temperatures of 325 F versus the standard temperatures of 350-375 F used today.

For less demanding requirements, cathodic epoxy systems are available that fully cure at 250 F yet offer good corrosion protection, especially when compared to anodic electrocoats and previously developed low-cure cathodic products.

To meet highly specialized requirements, a conductive, cathodic epoxy primer can be used in conjunction with a second electrocoat (topcoat) of similar or totally different formulation. Combinations of epoxy-epoxy or epoxy-acrylic layers are available to take advantage of the distinct properties of each technology.

And last but not least, corrosion protection has been significantly improved over bare steel and marginally pretreated substrates. Another trend in the automotive marketplace is the formulation of specialty electrocoat products to meet the needs and requirements of specific market segments.

Today, cationic epoxy electrocoat is the coating of choice for automobile bodies and automotive parts and accessories due to its excellent corrosion resistance, good throwpower, reduced solvent levels, and lead-free formulations. Consider the low incidence of rust in cars today vs. 20 years ago. Electrocoat technology is one of the primary reasons for rust reduction and the associated extended rust-through warranties that are now available to consumers.

The automotive industry standard for 20 years has been to coat the frames and chassis components of cars and light trucks with hot wax, providing corrosion protection for only one to three years. Hot wax required shielding from hot exhaust pipes and catalytic converters. The elimination of this shielding helped reduce weight and unwanted noise. New developments in electrocoat have led to formulations that meet OEMs' requirements for 10-year corrosion protection, provides superior corrosion resistance on edges, demonstrates superior heat resistance and lowers applied cost. Applications include truck and trailer frames, engine cradles, trailer hitches and tow hooks, suspension components and underbody components.

Radiators have historically been coated with a low-cost, low-performance, spray-applied black coating for cosmetic purposes. This poses several significant problems for heat exchangers. The lack of complete coverage leads to corrosion failure and core replacement. Cathodic epoxy electrocoat offered a promising solution to the corrosion problems encountered with heat exchangers. One of the advantages of electrocoat is its ability to provide complete surface coverage with unsurpassed film uniformity due to throwpower. Throwpower is the ability to throw paint into recessed areas. By being able to coat the entire core, corrosion resistance is greatly enhanced. Special epoxy electrocoats, which have the ability to cover very sharp metal edges with a substantial film thickness of coating, further enhance corrosion performance over the fins in heat exchangers. Precise control of the applied electrocoat film over the entire surface area results in little or no coating bridging between the fins and negligible effect on thermal performance.

Fasteners were traditionally coated by a liquid dip/spin process. The fasteners were dipped into a small basket and coated with a solvent-based liquid paint. The basket was then raised and spun to remove excess paint on parts. Next the fasteners were emptied onto a conveyor for curing. The basket was then reloaded and the process repeated two to three times until the entire surface of the fasteners was completely coated. A newer generation of cationic epoxy electrocoat combined with an innovative coating process was developed specifically for coating fasteners. The fasteners are loaded into a large barrel or basket and dipped into the electrocoat bath. Post rinses capture the residual paint solids, or "drag out," and return them back into the paint tank leading to very high transfer efficiencies (95-98%) and very little waste. The parts are then cured. Subsequent coating is not required. The advantages of this process are higher throughput, environmentally friendly technology, and cost savings due to the efficiency to complete coating in one pass. Finally, electrocoated fasteners have excellent corrosion resistance, a non-sticking formulation, no recess or thread fill issues, and an optional torque modifier.

Even these high performance, user friendly systems have room for improvement. The area of cathodic epoxy research and development is still extremely active with new and exciting improvements just over the horizon. Companies are currently developing raw materials and formulations that decrease weight loss and improve throwpower, and they are phasing out the use of lead. Equipment sophistication, new markets and products, operational efficiencies, and governmental regulations will continue to permit the electrocoating industry ample opportunities to solidify its growth.