The new center will serve as a product development facility and customer support center for the company’s wood coatings business. It contains advanced equipment to allow for the reproduction of application environments in order to test the performance of products.
“We will be able to accelerate the time it takes to scale up products for launches without wasting our customer’s valuable line time as we can efficiently and predictably develop, test and industrialize our technologies to meet customer requirements,” stated Jim Kavanagh, managing director of industrial coatings.
The facility will also consolidate the company’s solvent-based and water-based product research for the wood coatings industry.
“This investment significantly increases AkzoNobel’s comprehensive North America supply capability for the wood coatings market and makes it possible to react much faster to trends,” stated Ted Rhee, regional commercial director of wood finishes and adhesives.
