PPG Lead-Free Coatings Earn EPA Green Chemistry Award

    WASHINGTON--June 25, 2001--PPG Industries' breakthrough discovery in lead-free anti-corrosion coatings for the automotive industry received a Green Chemistry Challenge Award this evening from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
    During a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences, PPG won recognition in the designing safer chemicals category for Enviro-Prime 2000 cationic electrodeposition coatings in which yttrium substitutes for lead.
    Automakers dip car bodies in baths of electrically charged coatings that historically have contained lead salts or pigments because they are highly effective in resisting corrosion. Since the late 1960s, this process has dramatically reduced auto body corrosion.
    "This award is an important validation of our work to improve the environmental performance of our products, which is a critical requirement of our customers," said Richard Zahren, PPG vice president of automotive coatings. "Just as important, this is the first lead-free product to outperform leaded coatings in corrosion prevention."
    Enviro-Prime 2000 coatings contain no heavy metals, and significantly reduce emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC). In addition, unlike other lead-free e-coat products, PPG's anti-corrosion coatings enable automakers to eliminate chrome from rinses and use low-nickel or potentially nickel-free pretreatments. Furthermore, PPG's award-winning coatings can be cured at lower temperatures, saving energy and costs, according to Zahren.
    Automakers' use of the Enviro-Prime 2000 e-coats will eliminate about 1 million pounds of lead from primer coatings on an annual basis, and by year-end 11 North American assembly plants with total production capacity of 1.2 million vehicles will be using the lead-free e-coat, he added.
    Last fall Enviro-Prime 2000 coatings received an R&D 100 Award from R&D magazine as one of the year's 100 most significant technology breakthroughs in new product and processes. Earlier this year they were a finalist in the prestigious PACE Award program for automotive supplier innovation.
    "Our breakthrough in lead-free e-coats is the latest example of PPG's pioneering efforts in making automotive coatings more environmentally friendly," Zahren said. "In the late 1990s, we introduced the world's first commercial powder clear coat. And throughout the 1980s, we led the way in waterborne coatings, low-VOC topcoats, and low-VOC electrodeposition coatings that are free of hazardous air pollutants (HAPS)."