There are a lot of ways to press the gas on your shop earnings in 2025. You can expand, invest in newer equipment, overhaul your operation, or become OEM-certified to grab more business. If those options are a bit too expensive right now, you can always look for ways to cut expenses, especially using input from a consultant (something your vendors can help with). Some of the quickest, least costly ways to punch up revenue could be right in front of you right now in new products available from your paint vendors.

Annually, if not more often, paint manufacturers release new products designed to help you work more efficiently with minimal investment of time and money. Since their success is tied to yours, these companies are on the constant lookout for ways to build efficiencies and increase your throughput. If you haven’t yet this year, call up your paint reps and see what they can offer. In the meantime, here's a look at the latest and greatest products that could be helping you as we speak.

The App, available from AkzoNobel, places the power to guide your business in your smartphone with feature that use data analytics and other sources to streamline management, optimize inventory, and reduce cycle times.

AkzoNobel – “App-etite” for digital power

Apps have evolved well beyond being smartphone doorways to social media, email, news, and weather. Today, they have the power to help manage your entire operation. The AkzoNobel Performance Portal (The App) is engineered to do just that by enhancing communication and data-driven decision-making.

The App promises to:

Streamline operations through standardized workflows that eliminate inefficiencies and reduce variability while maintaining quality and efficiency.
Cut overhead costs by streamlining middle management
Optimize inventory, reduce cycle times, and maximize capital utilization
Offer real-time analytics to provide instant, actionable insights for managers
Identify inefficiencies before they impact shop bottom line and improve workflow
Provide teams with clear direction and actionable insights to improve performance.
Foster a collaborative culture that aligns teams with organizational goals
Speed up integration and get new shops profitable, and
Standardize processes for scalability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

AkzoNobel says The App offers even greater value for Multi-Shop Operators (MSOs).

Axalta – Raising the bar on color matching

As OEMs expand their finish colors options, shops face an unceasing challenge to produce exact color matches. Axalta now offers Irus Scan, its latest spectrophotometer that scientifically measures paint color on a vehicle to provide accurate color matches in waterborne and solvent-borne basecoat technologies.

Axalta explains that Irus Scan leverages an inverse angle to detect hue shifting effect pigments for more precise reading for popular achromatic effect colors. The company declares Irus Scan is the first spectrophotometer with built-in gloss measurement capabilities to ensure accurate surface preparation and clearcoat product usage.

A high definition, RGB camera measures colored sparkle and pairs them with the company’s color formula retrieval system to provide what Axalta says is the single, best color match for vehicles using a newly refreshed database of over two million color formulas. This setup is designed to eliminate time in the color match process, allowing for more vehicles to be processed faster and more efficiently.

Axalta adds that due to its accuracy, Irus Scan reduces the need for spray outs to check color and decreases rework from color match errors, reducing product waste and upgrading environmental sustainability.

BASF – A cleaner coating

Speaking of caring for the environment, BASF has created new finishes, its Glasurit AraClass A-C-24 Eco Balance and R-M Race Finish-R eSense, designed to boost shop efficiency using a formula engineered to significantly cut CO2 emissions.

Using ChemCycling technology under BASF’s mass balance approach, these clearcoats are manufactured using recycled feedstock.

BASF says the products are driven by its “vision to support a circular economy by reducing the use of fossil raw materials, minimizing waste and cutting CO2 emissions in the value chain.” The recycled feedstock is derived from waste tires, effectively diverting them from landfills or incineration. BASF notes that its Glasurit AraClass A-C-24 Eco Balance and R-M Race Finish-R eSense clearcoats are the first automotive refinish products to utilize this technology.

According to BASF, product benefits include quick drying speeds for fast processing, with the coating drying in 20 minutes at 40 degrees Celsius. By reducing drying time, energy consumption can be significantly lowered, resulting in improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact. The company notes that this feature is particularly advantageous for electric vehicles since it minimizes their exposure to excessive heat.

In addition to these ChemCycling clearcoats, BASF intends to launch another sustainable solution-new mixing clears based on BASF’s biomass balance approach have been added to the waterborne basecoat series of Glasurit 100 Line and R-M Agilis, both of which the company claim already offer the lowest VOC content below 250 g/L in the industry. The new mixing clears are formulated to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 50 percent.

PPG’s Deltron NXT system offers a number of features to make color-matching easy.

PPG – Pearls of color matching wisdom

PPG has its own solution for better color matching with its Deltron NXT product line, which offers the latest pigments and effects. Replacing powder pearls are 13 new liquid pearls designed to provide easier, more accurate color matches to OEM colors that promise to be easy to dispense and to improve ready-to-spray settling. Joining them are nine new Xirallic and four Colorstream liquid effects pigments to better match today’s most complex, iridescent colors. Further, new toners also have been added to ensure supply sustainability, including Vivid Red Ruby which will work to eliminate the use of tinted clears.

A new “blacker than black” jet black toner is designed to enhance basecoat application, while a new blue black toner can improve the ability to match vehicle colors from around the world.

PPG says the additional introduction of new reducers to enhance the painter’s ability to achieve efficient refinish repairs in the full range of operating conditions — from cool and dry to hot and humid. Supporting this effort includes a new reducer selection guide, gun chart and application recommendations.

Sherwin-Williams – Dispensing speed

Paint companies have targeted a number of spots in the refinishing process with upgrades to speed paint work. Sherwin-Williams now offers Collision Core Pronto, a fully automated dispenser for mixing color. This dispenser is fully integrated with its Collision Core Color products and sends multiple mixes to the dispenser, allowing the technician to focus on other, more value-added activities. It’s available with four or six dispensing heads, which Sherwin-Williams says gives flexibility for customers operating in high-volume or high-labor cost environments.

Sherwin-Williams says key features and benefits (based on the four-head model) include:

The ability to dispense nearly 200 colors per day. With four high-tech dispensing heads, Pronto can mix up to four colors at the same time. The company declares Pronto is the first solution to offer concurrent multiple mixes.
Pronto is engineered to be a user-friendly plug-and-play solution that requires no manual mixing, cleaning or calibration, and can be operated by practically anyone, freeing up skilled technicians to focus on application and repairs.
Fast mixing times. Initial users have demonstrated a total mix time of five minutes – 50 percent quicker than alternative mixing systems, which can save significant time in busy operations.
Saves up to 50 percent in labor time. The four-head machine can process 24 mixes an hour, significantly increasing body shop productivity.
Consistent color precision with reduced product waste. Pronto is fully integrated with Color Retrieval Systems and allows for extreme precision down to 0.01 g. with no dripping or risk of overpouring. This factor can ensure minimal product waste and fewer errors in color formulation.
Can be used for all job sizes. Pronto can dispense as little as 50 g accurately, amounts Sherwin-Williams says are impossible to achieve with a manual process.
Low maintenance. Pronto is designed with full product recirculation intended to eliminate the risk of clogging and ensures consistent, error-free operation. The company says the fully automated recirculation system substantially reduces maintenance-related downtime, letting shops focus on core tasks.

Ready to get started with these or other new products? Keep in mind that regardless of shop size, even modest increases in production-even an additional 1-3 jobs per week-can set you up for a brighter 2025 and put you on the path for an even better 2026.

Revolutionizing Paint Application

by Dr. Steve Joseph, Corporate Scientist, 3M Collision

With the vast majority of professional collision repairers in North America using a disposable paint cup and liner system, it is hard to believe that they didn’t even exist 25 years ago. Before 3M introduced the Paint Preparation System (PPS) to the market in July 2001, permanent plastic or metal cups were the only option.

At 3M, scientists and engineers use science to develop new solutions, new technologies, and sometimes even new industries that solve challenges that people face every day. PPS came to fruition out of a desire to be embedded in the body shop environment and to work with painters to understand their unique challenges, pain points, and everyday processes. It was clear that the repetitive process of mixing paint in separate containers, pouring the paint through a paper strainer into the spray gun reservoir, and then cleaning up the spray gun and cups afterwards was ripe for a better, more innovative approach.

At the time, the industry was transitioning from siphon-fed to gravity-fed spray guns, driven primarily by the improved transfer efficiency of these spray guns with top mounted cups. Additionally, shop owners were looking for more efficiency and less material waste while concerns over solvent use and disposal were growing.

Countless hours were spent developing concepts and building prototypes before a breakthrough was ultimately reached: why not take the container of mixed paint and place it on the spray gun to eliminate the transfer step? This new cup that doubled as a spray gun reservoir could then be disposed of, and in turn could eliminate much of the solvent associated with spray gun cleaning.

The 3M team field-tested a variety of PPS prototypes with production painters to understand the factors that were most important to them. This guidance led the team to pursue a liner and cup system over a linerless vented cup, as it allowed painters to not only keep the spray gun positioned at 90 degrees to the panel, which optimizes material transfer and reduces waste, but also spray upside down to cover hard-to-reach areas.

It took a number of years to transform the original concept into what would become the world’s first disposable paint cup system. Following its launch, PPS would soon gain acceptance throughout the market and become adopted by painters all over the world.

Today, when compared to the use of conventional spray gun cup systems, PPS users can help reduce solvent consumption by up to 70 percent, material waste by up to 10 percent, and see improvements in overall productivity and cycle time. Achieving greater productivity and efficiency within the paint process is an ongoing commitment for 3M. In 2018, 3M introduced the PPS Series 2.0 Spray Cup System, which was redesigned for even easier and cleaner painting after engaging with painters to understand opportunities to further improve the product.