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BASF launches STAMPP training program in Falun.

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RPM Belgium purchases Hermeta Chemie GmbH; expands its waterproofing products portfolio.

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PPG introduces 66 new shades at annual Automotive Color Trend Show.

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Sherwin-Williams’ Euronavy ES301 coating system is protecting the new ship’s ballast tanks.

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AkzoNobel has finalized the $1.3 billion sale of its National Starch business to Corn Products International.

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MesoCoat, Inc. has won multiple American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) and Phase II SBIR awards from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and demonstrate its CermaClad fusion claddings and PComP nanocomposite cermet coatings for energy applications.

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The global consumption of formulated adhesives was 16.6 billion pounds in 2009 worth $20.6 billion, according to Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney.

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DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) has partnered with The Body Shop, which specializes in “lean” collision repair. The agreement between the parties covers the sharing of The Body Shop’s Star-Link Collision Repair System, a Kaizen centered “lean” business model that was developed by John Sweigart and Brad Sullivan over the past 12 years. The model is currently practiced in all of The Body Shop’s Pittsburgh and New Jersey locations, as well as in several other independent repair shops in the United States and Canada. DPC is partnering with The Body Shop to offer a refined version of the model to DPC body shops.

The Body Shop operates a customer-focused group of collision repair centers with plans to continue rapid expansion over the coming years. Sweigart and Sullivan created the Star-Link Collision Repair Network, made up exclusively of repairers who are committed to genuine improvement through Kaizen. This group exists to promote to the customer a substantially better offering, and to work together through shared learning for the sake of a better collision repair industry, according to the company.
 
“We realized very quickly that DuPont Performance Coatings shared our vision,” said John Sweigart, CEO, The Body Shop. “We effectively help existing repairers create genuine improvement using a lean model and the answer is not just in the application of lean tools and courses, but through a hands-on, ‘learn by doing’ approach. The key to transform repairer operations is to focus on teaching, learning and problem solving.”

“DPC chose to partner with The Body Shop because of the organizations companywide commitment to process improvement and the ability to practice it internally and transfer it to others. We visited The Body Shop locations six times in 12 months and significant process improvement occurred between each visit,” said Steve Trapp, manager, DuPont Collision Services Development. “The Body Shop practices what they preach, they are continuously improving. Our customers will learn a lot from John Sweigart and the Star-link team.”

DPC will offer courses at NACE, SEMA and other events featuring the learning from exposure to The Body Shop. 

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MesoCoat Inc.'s PComP nanocomposite cermet coatings have been identified and selected as a breakthrough nanotechnology of potential benefit to the oil and gas exploration and production industry by EPNanoNet. MesoCoat Inc.'s CEO, Andrew Sherman will participate in the first EPNanoNet webinar on Sept 28th, to brief leading oil and gas industry members on the company's nanocomposite coating solutions for extending equipment life and operational envelopes in extreme environments. This is the first in a series of "Nanotechnology for E&P" webinars to be hosted by EPNanoNet, and MesoCoat was chosen as one potentially stand-out technology over a highly competitive pool of nanotechnology-based solutions companies and technologies to participate in this flagship event. EPNanoNet was launched in 2008 with the mission of accelerating the development and uptake of nanotechnology within the upstream oil and gas exploration and production industry.

MesoCoat's PComP nanocomposite cermet family of coatings incorporate solid lubricant and other ceramic nanoparticles into a hard, tough, extremely durable coating system that is used to protect metal parts from wear and corrosion in extreme environments, such as those encountered in the E&P industry. The PComP coatings are applied using thermal spray, and provide up to 10 times life extension over carbide and hard chrome coatings in sliding wear applications because of extremely low coefficients of friction combined with high hardness. The nanocomposite coatings also provide improvements in ductility, toughness and spallation resistance compared to ceramic coatings such as diamond like carbon, tungsten carbide, or alumina-ceramic, and are easier and faster to apply and grind than conventional, larger grain size coating materials.

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