PPG Colour Centre of Excellence

PPG hosts one of three of the Colour Centres of Excellence around the world

PPG’s manufacturing site located in Stowmarket, Suffolk is one of three Colour Centres of Excellence around the world. Across the globe, there are also localised colour centres and smaller localised labs providing colour and customer support.

Stowmarket Colour Group is part of the global colour team who produce around 30,000 new colour formulations every year. It is also the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) customer service centre of operations and produces over 4,000 new colours direct to customers. “Colour match, quality and meeting our customers’ needs is fundamental in everything we do,” said David Rossiter, UK Colour Group Manager PPG Refinish. “When we receive a request, that normally means there is someone in a bodyshop somewhere waiting for a colour solution to a repair. We receive matching requests from Europe and the Middle East, as well as the UK. Being able to respond quickly, having a strong network, good relationships with the Technical team and understanding what is required is essential. We send our teams out into the field so they can experience first-hand the needs of the bodyshop and to gain understanding of the importance of our work to our customers.”

There are 13 colour lab technicians who work at the Stowmarket site looking at trends and creating new colours. Many of the employees have worked at the Colour Centre for over 25 years and the longest server has been with the company for over 50 years. “The benefit of having the long service is that it builds experience into the team,” said David. “Colour is constantly changing as motor manufacturers are always trying something new to differentiate their brand. This means that new pigments and new colour trends develop so we, as a colour team, have to react to that and know how to match those colours.”

PPG provide accurate formulations for every vehicle produced around the world. They have an extensive colour standard library which goes back to the 1920s and 1.3 million spray out cards going back to the early 1940s. PPG remains at the forefront of colour by working closely with motor manufacturers and their styling teams. A lot of the new colours that they are matching will be for the 2017/18 season, but their work doesn’t stop there. Once new colours are launched on vehicles, the Colour team have to verify that the colour formulation is aligned to the standard that has been launched, and if it is not then they will very quickly introduce a variant. “When we are matching a new colour, we are not just matching it once. Due to the range of products PPG offer we match colours across our solvent and water based lines, meaning that in total one colour is matched six times,” said David. “The bottom line is that we have to have a formulation, across our product range, for that colour as soon as it leaves the showroom on day one”. All colour formulations are available to bodyshops on the PPG PAINT MANAGER® system.

The team provide support to the development of the RAPIDMATCH™ spectrophotometer and the visual colour tools which provide an essential part of PPG’s colour offering. These tools are delivered to over 35,000 customers worldwide in collision repair, commercial transport and light industrial paint products. Colour tools are representations of car colours and their variations to help bodyshops identify the correct colour match. The colour is either shown as a colour chip, often produced with PPG paint or digitally as an on-screen image. Colour tool systems consist of 2,500 to 20,000 individual colour chips which are combined in colour fans ordered by motor manufacturers or in chromatic colour.

Alignment between the global labs and their customers is paramount. “If we were all matching things in isolation, and what we were doing couldn’t be reproduced anywhere else in the world it would be crazy,” said David. “It is critical that every PPG lab works to the same standard using the same equipment, process and quality standards. The way we approve and identify colours is absolutely critical. Every day we make sure that we are doing the right things and sharing best practice to ensure that, our customers, achieve exactly the same result.”

Significant investment has been made into the equipment and lighting in the colour laboratory. As well as natural daylight, there are various other sources of lighting to replicate what can be found around the world. Colour match approval is also a critical part of the process. “Colour Matchers don’t do their own approval,” said David. “Once the Colour Matcher is happy that he or she has identified the pigments and created a good match, it will then go to a senior assessor. They will look at it and make a decision, it will then enter a third & final approval stage before being released.”

Collectively the three PPG Colour Centres of Excellence around the world produce over 30,000 new colour formulations every year. David finally added; “We have a highly skilled, knowledgeable and motivated team that is able to adapt quickly to colour matching requirements for the benefit of PPG customers. Working with our Colour Partners we ensure PPG’s colour offering provides an accurate match for our customers and is the best in the business.”

For more information visit the PPG website or contact ukenquiries@ppg.com 

Article provided by ABP http://www.abpclub.co.uk/