At its annual management conference in February, Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes (CR) presented its prestigious Alliance Award to Dr Georg Schröder, president of BYK-Gardner. The award recognizes both BYK-Gardner’s innovative work in a joint project on color measurement and its performance as a business partner.

At its annual management conference in February, Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes (CR) presented its prestigious Alliance Award to Dr Georg Schröder, president of BYK-Gardner. The award recognizes both BYK-Gardner’s innovative work in a joint project on color measurement and its performance as a business partner.

BYK-Gardner is part of ALTANA AG and a subsidiary of BYK-Chemie, a supplier of additives for coatings and plastics. A pioneer since 1924, BYK-Gardner has specialized in developing instruments to measure color, appearance and the physical properties of coatings and plastics.

In 2002, Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes and BYK-Gardner joined forces to gain a deeper understanding of color and appearance. They were joined by Merck, a supplier of pigments, and all three companies launched the TARBAM (Total Appearance Research Byk Akzo Merck) project.

The results brought Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes nearer to its goal of color digitization, embodied in the launch of the BYK-mac. This innovative spectrophotometer has a built-in digital camera able to measure effects like coarseness and glint, as well as color. BYK-Gardner also developed a completely new color-matching system for Akzo Nobel, the Sikkens Automatchic 3, which is expected to be launched soon.

For more information, visitwww.carrefinishes.comorwww.byk.com.