Axalta Coating Systems showed off its new Irus system for color scanning, matching, and fully automated mixing to media representatives Monday, Oct. 30, at Celebrity Cars in Las Vegas as part of SEMA Show activities.
"At Axalta, innovation is central to our business," said Troy Weaver, senior vice president, Global Refinish. "We constantly look for ways to help our customers to do business better, enabling them to work as efficiently as possible and to maximize their profitability."
James Muse, vice president of global sales, Axalta Refinish, said the average body shop mixes five mixes per day, at an average of 10 minutes required for each mix.
"That's 208 hours a year, or three-plus weeks of time you're not paid for," he said. "Time is money; your painter should be painting, not mixing."
The new fully automated Irus Mix system embodies "innovation with purpose," he said. With fully automated mixing, there are no overpours or other mistakes made by manual mixing, so the system eliminates waste. The system is also one way to address the technician shortage, he noted.
Irus Mix, introduced in Europe in June, will be rolled out to North American shops in 2024. Toners are packaged in plastic bottles, sized by their usage (low-use specialty toners are only 100 ml, as an example.) Once the color is scanned and input into the computer, the mixing machine's carriage retrieves each toner from the cabinet, gives it a gentle shake to agitate it, and pours it into the cup placed on the scale at the lower right of the machine.
See the Irus Mix in action here.
All of Axalta's premium basecoat systems: Spies Hecker Permahyd Hi-TEC, Cromax Pro, and Standox Standoblue, are available in the new bottling system used with Irus Mix.
