CLEVELAND—PPG Industries Inc. unveiled its new advanced automotive adhesives and sealants laboratory with a ribbon cutting and open house in Cleveland on Oct. 29.
The lab is located within PPG's existing 42-acre site that employs more than 700 people. It includes state-of-the-art equipment for testing product strength, flexibility, adhesion and sound dampening characteristics on a variety of structural adhesives, sealants and related products for use in the automotive industry.
Officials said the lab will play an important role in developing next-generation adhesives and sealants required for electric and autonomous vehicles. PPG makes a variety of adhesives and sealants using silicone, polyurethane and other elastomeric materials.
"It's going to make us a force to be reckoned with in the adhesives and sealants business," said Keith Johnston, PPG technical director for North America. "As we increase our penetration into the market and what we earn, we can start adding resources and hire more people as we grow the business."
The lab is co-located with PPG's other automotive-focused labs that develop and manufactures all coating layers used by global vehicle manufactures, including Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Mazda, Nissan, Tesla and Toyota.
The firm said initially the new lab will create six jobs, with more expected as business grows.
"We want PPG to be a great place for people to come and grow their careers," said Gary Bennett, PPG senior global general manager for adhesives and sealants. "Whenever we have an external hire that comes in as a chemist or a technician, they get exposed to a wide-variety of PPG products in the automotive space. As they do a great job, they have career opportunities across the organization that's all co-located here from a technical perspective. It's going to have a huge impact for the folks working here from a career-development perspective."