PPG Industries

PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) is an American manufacturer of glass and chemical products, including automotive safety glass. PPG is also the world's third largest producer of chlorine and caustic soda (used in a wide variety of industrial applications), vinyl chloride (for use in polyvinyl chloride resins), and chlorinated solvents.^[1] Founded in 1883 as the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, it is headquartered in PPG Place, a popular office and retail complex known for its striking glass facade designed by Philip Johnson. It is located in downtown Pittsburgh. PPG has 125 manufacturing facilities and equity affiliates in more than 20 countries around the globe. On 2 January 2008, PPG acquired the SigmaKalon Group of companies from private investment firm Bain Capital, strongly increasing its paint and specialty coatings business.^[2]

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Business units

PPG's business units include:

• Aerospace: World’s leading supplier of sealants, coatings, aircraft maintenance chemicals, transparent armor, transparencies, and application systems, serving original equipment manufacturers and maintenance providers for the commercial, military, regional jet and general aviation industries. Services include chemicals management.
• Architectural Coatings: Under the Pittsburgh® Paints, Olympic, Porter®, Monarch®, Lucite and PPG HPC (High Performance Coatings) brands, this unit produces paints, stains and specialty coatings for commercial, maintenance and residential markets.

[1] - Pittsburgh® Paints [2] - Porter® Paints [3] - Olympic® Paints and Stains

• Automotive Coatings: Global supplier of automotive coatings and services to auto and light truck manufacturers. Products include electrocoats, primer surfacers, base coats, clear coats, pretreatment chemicals, adhesives and sealants.
• Automotive Refinish: Produces and markets a full line of coatings products and related services for automotive repair and refurbishing as well as specialty coatings for sign, light industrial and fleet markets. Also created and manages CertifiedFirst® Network, PPG’s premier collision-shop alliance.
• Chlor-Alkali and Derivatives: A world leader in the production of chlorine, caustic soda and related chemicals for use in chemical manufacturing, pulp and paper production, water treatment, plastics production and many other products.
• Fiber Glass: Maker of fiber glass yarn for use in electronics, especially printed circuit boards, and specialty materials, such as insect screening, medical casting and filtration fabrics. Also maker of fiber glass chopped strands, rovings and mat products used as reinforcing agents in thermoset and thermoplastic composite applications.
• Flat Glass: Produces glass that is fabricated into products primarily for commercial construction and residential markets, as well as the appliance, mirror and transportation industries. For commercial glass/architectural finishes, visit http://www.ppgIdeascapes.com. For Residential Glass products, visit http://corporateportal.ppg.com/NA/Glass/ResidentialGlass.
• Industrial Coatings: Produces a wide variety of coatings for the manufacture of appliances, agricultural and construction equipment, consumer products, electronics, heavy-duty trucks, automotive parts and accessories, coil, extrusions, wood flooring, kitchen cabinets and other finished products.
• Optical Products: Produces optical monomers, including CR-39® and Trivex™ lens materials, photochromic dyes and Transitions® (http://www.transitions.com) photochromic ophthalmic plastic eyewear. For product information, visit http://corporateportal.ppg.com/NA/Chemicals/Optical.
• Packaging Coatings: Global supplier of coatings, inks, compounds, pretreatment chemicals and lubricants for metal and plastic containers for the beverage, food, general line and specialty packaging industries.
• Silicas: Produces amorphous precipitated silicas used to improve strength and durability of tires and other rubber products, reduce gloss and viscosity of paints and varnishes, and enhance free-flow characteristics of powdered food ingredients. Also manufactures Teslin® synthetic printing sheet.

Former business units

PPG industries also once included:

• Biomedical Systems: created by the purchase (in 1986 and 1987) of the medical electronics divisions of Honeywell, Litton Industries, and Allegheny International. The biomedical systems division manufactured cardiac recording equipment, patient-monitoring systems, electrocardiogram instruments, defibrillators, and other products. The division lost money, in part because of high research and development costs, and was split up and sold to several companies during 1993–1995.
• Automotive Replacement Glass and Services: Fabricates and distributes replacement windshields and auto glass. Provides software and services linking the automotive aftermarket, insurance and fleet industries. Includes LYNX Services claims-management solutions and PPG PROSTARS retail auto glass marketing alliance. Visit PPG Prostars at http://www.ppgprostars.com. This business unit was divested in 2007. [4]
• Automotive OEM Glass: Produces original equipment windshields, rear and side windows and related assemblies for auto and truck manufacturers. Glass innovations can be found on their web site: http://corporateportal.ppg.com/na/oemglass. This business unit was divested in 2007. [5]
• Fine Chemicals: Produces advanced intermediates and bulk active ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry, and phosgene derivatives used in plastics, agricultural, pharmaceutical and other industries. This business unit was divested in 2007. [6]

References

1. ^ (2007) Standard and Poor's 500 Guide. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. ISBN 0-07-147906-6. 
2. ^ "PPG completes acquisition of SigmaKalon Group", January 2nd, 2008