PPG Earns PACE Award for Fourth Consecutive Year
Asset Caption: Michael Wujciak, left, global automotive leader for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, presents a PACE Award to Dennis Kovalsky, vice president of automotive OEM coatings for PPG Industries, for the company's CeramiClear clearcoat. The PACE Award program honors product innovation and management excellence among automotive suppliers worldwide.
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DETROIT--March 4, 2003--CeramiClear clearcoat by PPG Industries has received a PACE Award, marking the fourth consecutive year the company has won recognition from the program that honors product innovation and management excellence among automotive suppliers worldwide.
CeramiClear clearcoat is the first automotive clearcoat to use nanoparticle technology in the final coating applied to car bodies, protecting the color coat while providing a durable, glossy appearance. The patented nanoparticle technology creates a highly cross-linked network at the surface of the coating for superior resistance to damage caused by day-to-day use, car washes and environmental hazards such as acid rain and tree sap.
Twelve PACE Awards were presented in the annual competition sponsored by Automotive News magazine and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Recipients were selected from 22 finalists after a comprehensive evaluation by an independent panel representing industry and academia.
"This award validates our ability to leverage the vast technical expertise of PPG to meet the needs of the automotive industry in ways that only we can," said Dennis Kovalsky, PPG vice president of automotive OEM coatings. "CeramiClear clearcoat is such a breakthrough product that we actually had to create new, tougher test procedures because no automotive coating had achieved this level of mar resistance before."
Developed in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz during a three-year period, CeramiClear clearcoat commercialization began in August 2002 at the Sindelfingen, Germany plant. A second Mercedes-Benz plant, at Bremen, has also launched the product as well. According to PPG, commercialization of CeramiClear clearcoat in Europe will accelerate this year. In addition, PPG has developed an aftermarket clearcoat - which provides approximately the same level of protection as the factory-applied CeramiClear clearcoat - for vehicles requiring body repairs.
Previous PACE Award winners from PPG were:
| -- | 2002 - FrameCoat electrodeposition coating for automotive and light-truck chassis components. |
| -- | 2001 - Audioguard sound- and vibration-damping coating. |
| -- | 2000 - Enviracryl powder clear coat. |
On the forefront of innovation in decorative and protective coatings and environmental application concerns since 1927, PPG has long been a leader in helping automakers advance technologies and processes used in the application of automotive coatings.
Pittsburgh-based PPG is the world's leading manufacturer of transportation coatings and a major global supplier of industrial and packaging coatings, and a leading North American producer of architectural coatings. In addition, PPG manufactures flat and fabricated glass, continuous-strand fiber glass and chemicals. Sales were US$8.1 billion for 2002.
www.ppg.com
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