Jul 25 2005
BASF Coatings and the Elastogran Group have signed an agreement on long-term and far-reaching cooperation in the coating of wood trim parts for the automotive industry. The signing of the agreement by Uwe Bauschulte, Metal/Wood Automotive Components Account Manager at BASF Coatings and Norbert Prechtl, Technical Sales Manager Flexible Foam Systems at Elastogran officially sealed the interdivisional partnership within the BASF Group.
For some time now, a change in technology has been emerging in several areas of wood trim parts coating for the automotive industry. Some wood trim parts are no longer coated with the conventional “polyester finish”. Instead, the "reaction injection molding" (RIM) process is used to coat the parts with "PUR glasklar", a special polyurethane (PU) material. The objective of this development and in turn, the driving force behind it, is to further reduce interior emissions, as well as improve technological surface properties.
“We recognized these developments early on and saw them as an opportunity. As BASF, we positioned ourselves in line with this trend,” says Martin Homann, who as the Wood Automotive Components Account Manager “grew up” with polyester varnish.
Elastogran has operated successfully in the area of the new PU technology for years. “We have a good product, and BASF Coatings has a sales organization that is tailored to this area, which makes this cooperation ideal for us,” Nikolaus Wiegert of Technical Service and PUR glasklar Sales explains.
Both BASF Coatings and Elastogran have developed and agreed upon a joint marketing concept within the BASF Group. The responsibilities have been clearly distributed: Elastogran provides the product and the technical know-how, and BASF Coatings provides sales and service, along with the other Coatings products in the customers' production lines.
“And with the concept of ‘one-stop shopping’, we’re meeting the expectations our customers have for BASF as a system supplier," Bauschulte and Prechtl agree.
http://www.corporate.basf.com