Axalta Coating Systems has announced that its new Global Innovation Center will be located at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The 43.340m2 facility will be home to Axalta’s global research, product development, and technology initiatives and partner with the company’s other technology centres in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Project construction is expected to be complete in late 2017. Axalta’s global corporate headquarters is already located in Centre City Philadelphia, and its North America headquarters is located in Glen Mills, PA with a customer training centre in Exton, PA.
“Innovation is central to Axalta’s growth and ability to meet the needs of our customers’ years into the future,” Axalta Chairman and CEO Charlie Shaver said. “Coatings are a critical component of so many everyday products. Cars and other vehicles, motors and electronic components, automotive parts, white goods and countless other materials exposed to the elements rely on coatings to make them not only beautiful, but more durable, energy-efficient, and productive. Our Global Innovation Center will ensure Axalta sets the pace for coatings technology around the world.”
Axalta’s team of scientists and technicians at the Global Innovation Center will develop next generation coatings products and keep pace with emerging application needs. Vehicles increasingly use light weight plastic and composite materials to save fuel, which require special coatings formulations. Regulations and customer demands call for newer waterborne coatings. Customers engaged in vehicle manufacturing and repair require faster and more productive application systems and technologies. Developing products to suit these and other needs will be the mission of the Global Innovation Center and Axalta’s worldwide research and development network.
“Product development is a collaborative endeavor,” Barry Snyder, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Axalta said. “Axalta’s technology spans polymer, colloid and materials science which bring chemistry, rheology and optics to bear on coating formulation and application. The Global Innovation Center will bring together our world-class experts and next-generation tools to deliver solutions that will meet the needs of our customers around the world.”
