Donato Collision made the conversion to AXALTA in September, 2007 after Joe, a painter himself, participated in the three-day DuPont™ Cromax® Pro Waterborne Base coat application course at the Ajax Training Centre.
Back at the shop, Joe worked with his painters and the waterborne operation was up and running very quickly, with no disruption in production. DuPont representative Bryon Bird and Cross Canada Auto Body Supply representative Dave Penney provided strong support. “Bryon was a great help in teaching me the proper spray techniques,” says painter Chris Harris.
Investment required to make the conversion was minimal, consisting of new spray guns, air blowers and a gun washer.
“I am really impressed with how well AXALTA lays down, especially in high metallics and pearls,” says Joe. “There is absolutely no mottling, blends are better and the coverage is excellent. With fewer coats, there’s less time in the booth and the jobs are cleaner.”
Painter Chris Harris is very happy with AXALTA. “It is painter-friendly and amazingly easy to spray, and very easy to clean up.” he says. “It covers better and lays down very smooth, so the appearance of the final finish is better – it makes me look really good!”
Chris uses their extensive spray out card library and a combination of AXALTA VINdicator and the spectrophotometer to obtain an accurate colour match. “The matches are excellent,” he states. “In fact, it’s one of the features of Cromax® Pro that impresses me most. The AcquireRX™ camera is a great tool that I couldn’t do without. I highly recommend it to any painter.”
“We’re very happy with our transition to AXALTA,” says Joe Donato. “We have no regrets in making this move and would never want to go back to using a solvent borne system again.”
