It’s entirely appropriate that SEMA convenes each year right before the holidays. Forget about the dry hot Las Vegas location. This world-famous exhibition is a kind of holiday dreamscape where manufacturers tear the wrappings off hundreds of new parts, accessories, vehicle models and repair solutions in front of wide-eyed automotive service professionals. Among the shiny new objects promising to transform the repair industry are the latest offerings from the paint manufacturers you’ve partnered your business with for years.
While many shops are content with mulling over these high-profile innovations during a course of months, market leaders tend to dive right in. Make 2020 the year you joined them. Consider early adoption of new products and services that could give a much-needed kick in the pants to your business and potentially set it on a fresh, more lucrative repair course.
Check out the latest from your paint provider or the provider you might want to switch to in the New Year.
AkzoNobel: Celebrating history and the future
AkzoNobel chose SEMA to showcase the introduction of seven new colors in its Modern Classikk line of automotive paints developed in collaboration with Dave Kindig, star of television show, “Bitchin’ Rides.” Garnering particular interest was Redical, which AkzoNobel has slated as a red finish designed to standout from other candy apple paints. The new color took a starring role as the finish of choice on the 1964 Pontiac Tempest built by Kindig for the company’s show booth.
Also in the SEMA spotlight was AkzoNobel’s homage to the long history of its brands. Sikkens, celebrated 227 years and the Wanda line 85 years. The Lesonal line turned 160 years and used the occasion to unveil a new look that includes color-coded labels providing a better visual representation of its products to customers, according to Product Manager Bevan Perkowski.
While celebrating its history, AkzoNobel shined a light on the future with its shop management tool, Carbeat, designed specifically to help increase a body shop’s efficiency and growth. Carbeat provides customers access to workflow software via the Cloud, along with a production-analysis dashboard, a large touch-screen monitor, onsite set-up and training, and quarterly progress review. Shops use the touch-screen, which notes work that must be performed along with other updates such as parts delivery, to track repairs. The system is customized for each shop and provides critical analytics to keep owners and others updated on key business information.
Axalta: The need for speed
Axalta Manager Steffen Apollo says his company has used SEMA as a launch point for truly “game changing” innovative products. This year was no different with the arrival of the Permahyd 2K Sealer 5650. The new sealer, which also is a waterborne product, is all about speed, speed, speed.
“Productivity makes 5650 stand out,” says Apollo. “Industry-wide, the standard for a sealer has been a 20-minute flash time following application. The 5650 provides a flash time of just 3-5 minutes, a 15-minute savings that I would argue is like adding another car through your booth every day.”
Apollo says speed and increased productivity aren’t the sealer’s only selling points. He notes that as a 2-component system, the 5650 offers a “traditional, quality, dense fill. Also, the 5650 offers a true “visual gauge” for painters since its appearance lets them know it has successfully flashed, a factor not possible with other sealers.
“What happens is that with sealers that take 20 minutes to flash, painters can think they’re finished at 15 minutes when actually much of the sealer is still mushy. They go ahead and add the basecoat and clear, sacrificing quality and appearance,” says Apollo.
The 5650 offers one further benefit. It helps complete Axalta’s Single Visit System. This system incorporates base and clearcoats that require just 1 ½ coats per panel and offer shorter flash times as well. With the new 5650 sealer, Apollo says a vehicle can be finished with the Single Visit System (including booth time) in just 40 minutes. “That’s less than half the time of the 100 minutes it often takes with other systems,” he says. “Not only are you being more productive, you’re cutting the use of other resources like fuel for the booth.”
Ultimately, the combination of product quality, speed, and environmental quality and safety are what matter most to Axalta, says Apollo. “In an era of MSOs and completing as much work as is manageable, it’s all about being as productive as possible, in a way that doesn’t compromise quality or environmental safety.”
BASF: Rolling out a lucky seven
BASF introduced seven new offerings as part of SEMA’s New Product Showcase. They included:
Glasurit 285-15 Black and 285-25 White Direct to Metal Primers
The next generation of DTM Primer technology is engineered to provide ultra-smooth finishes and excellent leveling with fast sanding. These primers also offer all L-Shade tinted undercoats.
Glasurit 151-170 UV Primer Grey Aerosol
A new addition to Glasurit UV Primer line, the 151-170 UV Primer is an aerosol 1K product, yielding 2K results. BASF says it dries exceptionally fast, allowing shops to get more cars out the door with lower energy and labor costs. It’s also designed to be safe and easy to use.
R-M 910 Universal Prep Cleaner
BASF calls R-M 910 Universal Prep Cleaner a next generation, improved final wipe waterborne cleaning technology. Like other R-M products, the 910 cleaner promises to offer peak efficiency to high-productivity collision centers and restoration shops alike.
Limco LP790K White, LP800K Grey, and LP810K Black Primer Surfacers
White, Grey, and Black surfacers provide shops a complete 2K urethane primer surfacer series solution that can be mixed to create L-shade groundcoats and enhance hiding and topcoat holdout.
Limco 151 General Purpose Cleaner
The first waterborne cleaner in the Limco brand, 151 General Purpose Cleaner cleans light-duty and water-soluble contaminants from painted parts, raw or painted plastics and gelcoats. Because it features anti-static properties, the product can be used as a pre-paint cleaner as well.
PPG: Sealing the deal
PPG debuted a pair of sealers - its ECS8X A-Chromatic Sealers, engineered for use with the company’s Envirobase High Performance basecoat automotive refinish system, and P565-318X HS Wet-on-Wet Sealers, intended specifically for use with the Aquabase Plus automotive refinish system.
Both sealers are available in three A-Chromatic shades: G1 white, G5 gray and G7 dark gray, which can be blended into shades G3 and G6. PPG says the sealers provide exceptional leveling and blend edge characteristics to produce a smoother finish for the basecoat layer.
| (Photos courtesy of PPG) PPG spotlighted new sealers for its Envirobase High Performance and Aquabase Plus automotive refinish systems. |
Both also are ready to topcoat in 15 minutes and can be applied over unsanded OEM e-coats, sanded original finishes and/or properly prepared and treated bare steel, aluminum, fiberglass and plastic. The sealers are intended to generate a level surface with minimal texture in the blend edge, allowing their associated basecoats to lay flatter. The improved foundation, coupled with the appropriate gray shade undercoat, can produce an “invisible” repair using less basecoat material, which translates into lower costs.
“Collision centers using the ECS8X A-Chromatic Sealers will experience a noticeable enhancement in Envirobase High Performance results,” said Tim Jones, PPG manager, collision segment, automotive refinish. Jones also praised the ease of use of P565-318X HS Wet-on-Wet Sealers, declaring that, “Painters will quickly notice how trouble-free these sealers are, and shop managers will appreciate increases in productivity.”
The ECS8X A-Chromatic Sealers will replace the ECS2X and ECS6X sealers. The P565-318X sealers are compatible in all markets using the current ECR reducers with full temperature options, eliminating the need for additional compliant reducers. Both sets of sealers are compatible with DELTRON DBC 2000 and GLOBAL REFINISH SYSTEM reducers in National Rule areas.
Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes: Matrix reloaded
Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes (SWAF) spent significant booth space and SEMA time focusing on art, notably paying tribute to the auto painter – refinishers, pinstripe artists and airbrushers – with a gallery-inspired space displaying unique works-of-art showcasing its paint and products.
Those weren’t the only works of art on display as SWAF featured custom vehicles built by Jesse James with West Coast Choppers, Ryan Evans and Lonny Speer with Count’s Kustoms, and motorcycles by a number of artists from Justin Nichols with Nichols Paint & Fab to Jace Hudson with Fast Life Garage.
Also taking central stage was Matrix Edge, the newest Matrix system and one that combines 21st century technology with old-school moxie. Ryan Evans likens the new system to Matrix circa 1983. “It instantly time-warped me,” he says. “Basecoats are just naturally delicate, but not with the old system and not with Edge. You don’t have to worry about tape tracking or bumping into the paint and scuffing the metallics. The basecoat is super durable even without any clear on it.”
Matrix Edge offers a complete line of system products including prep products, primers/sealers, basecoats, toners, sealers, clearcoats, activators/hardeners and reducers.
SWAF says Matrix Edge clearcoats remain unchanged with this new system. Formulas, everything from AG-40 Euroglas Design Clearcoat to MS-52 Universal Clearcoat, are original. Color tools include color retrieval software (Color Focus 2.0), color books with domestic and import colors, a color map system (with chips, including OEM colors) and a camera (or spectrophotometer).
Whether your shop is looking for increased productivity, improved efficiency, superior finishes, more environmentally friendly, safer products or solutions to bring the past alive, the industry’s paint manufacturers had something for everyone at SEMA 2019 that also could make 2020 a breakout year for shops ready to buy into a year of change.
