Keenan Auto Body of Middletown, Del., announced it became the first Dupont Performance Coatings (DPC) collision repair facility in Delaware to switch from solventborne to waterborne paints. The Middletown location is the first of Keenan’s eight shops to make the switch.
“This is just one part of our overall goal to stay ahead of the curve and to be lean and green,” said Michael LeVasseur, Keenan vice president, noting that the company plans to convert all of its shops to waterborne. “We saw the opportunity coming and set up our paint shop to accommodate the change back in 2006 – that way, when DPC was ready, we were ready.”
The shop uses DPC’s Standox line of paints.
“Standox has over 15 years experience with Standohyd waterborne basecoat in Western Europe, where DPC has more than 19,000 shops transitioned to a waterborne system, with 20,000 painters trained,” said Petra Schroeder, brand manager for Standox. “Our conversions in North America are going well.”
Keenan Auto Body says it also instituted the lean manufacturing process in its standard operating procedures over two years ago and has reduced its cycle time from the national average of 12 days to an average of seven days.
For more information, visit www.standox.com or www.keenanautobody.com.
