Axalta Coating Systems’ AquaEC Flex Broad Bake electrocoat (e-coat) was presented a 2023 BIG Innovation Award by the Business Intelligence Group (BIG). The annual awards programme recognises organisations, products, and people bringing new ideas to life in innovative ways.
“Axalta is proud to receive this award that further demonstrates our ongoing product innovation and performance,” said Robert Roop, Axalta’s Chief Technology Officer. “We are constantly innovating for our customers. The increased demand for electric vehicles drove the need for a more sustainable e-coat that applies with uniform thickness over complex vehicle designs while maintaining manufacturing productivity.
“Our innovation ensures that critical parts that carry and protect battery packs are heat-cured with the rest of the body frame, enabling automakers to co-produce electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles on the same manufacturing line.”
Maria Jimenez, Chief Operating Officer of the Business Intelligence Group said, “Innovation is business critical to today’s society. We are thrilled to be honouring Axalta as they are leading by example and improving the lives of so many.”
Axalta says that in addition to advanced curing properties, AquaEC Flex enables enhanced appearance, better edge-corrosion protection, and increased flexibility, allowing the coating to provide outstanding protection in complex electric vehicle body frame designs which are exposed to temperature and humidity variations during the vehicle’s battery life. It also provides potential energy savings on standard combustion engine cars.
According to Axalta, this latest e-coat formulated with new generation chemistry offers several sustainability advantages compared to previous generation technology, including 60 per cent lower VOC emissions and 15 per cent less energy use.
The company says it is one of the largest e-coat manufacturers in the world, serving most major light vehicle and commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturers, and a wide range of general industrial customers.