AkzoNobel opened a new research and development (R&D) center in High Point, North Carolina. It functions as a product development facility and customer support center for the wood coatings business. The company’s community of North America R&D centers supporting the performance coatings businesses includes laboratories in Troy, Michigan; Strongsville, Ohio; Houston, Texas; Flying Hills, Pennsylvania; and Lancaster, South Carolina.
AkzoNobel hosted a grand opening ceremony that was attended by customers, suppliers, employees, and community leaders. The R&D centers have advanced equipment allowing the company to reproduce the application environment and methods for customers and ensures the products provide the intended performance once commercialized.
AkzoNobel says the new manufacturing footprint in High Point provides the ability to produce the latest technologies without interruption. Jim Kavanagh, managing director of industrial coatings, stated: “We will use the new laboratory to leverage the latest best practices. The application center will contain the latest application and testing equipment that will allow us to mimic our customer’s lines and environments. 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.”
Ted Rhee, regional commercial director of wood finishes and adhesives stated: “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. It will also enable us to serve our direct OEM customers and our distribution partners better who are currently being served from our High Point factory.”