Recognizing that blending is not always an option for paint technicians, PPG's automotive refinish business has made significant upgrades to its traditional tint guides and created new posters that provide quick, visual “at a glance” recommendations for refinish situations when tinting may be required.

The new guides are the result of a concerted “voice of the customer” effort by PPG in which representatives visited collision centers, interviewed painters and met with distributors to ensure that PPG customers are provided with the most advanced, accurate and efficient color tools.

“We traveled to over 80 collision centers to listen to what our customers had to say,” said Mike Henry, PPG global color tools and color variant manager. “We talked to more than 150 industry professionals and found that our color chips are their go-to tool. We also learned that there isn’t always the option to blend: When that happens, tinting becomes the priority. Knowing that time and speed are important in the refinish process, we made improvements to our tinting guides to address the issue.”

The new posters use an innovative visual pictogram system. According to Henry, paint technicians can look at the pictograms to quickly locate toner qualities and their impact on the overall mix. Face and flop color characteristics are easily identified and particularly helpful when color travel is important. In addition, the pictograms address pearls, aluminums, special effects and more variations in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and custom finishes. The intent is to assist the technician in moving swiftly and simply to the targeted color match.

“With all the new car colors and effects OEMs are bringing out, we need to make sure our customers have all the color tools they require,” Henry added. “The new tint guides are a solid addition to the PPG color toolbox.”

The new tint guide posters are now available to PPG waterborne customers globally. Solvent-based guides will soon be introduced.