Volgren-Axalta Partnership reaches significant milestone


Axalta has been the exclusive paint supplier for Volgren’s three manufacturing plants and service centre since 2018, providing an additional independent paintworks audit of their industry-leading buses. At the beginning of the partnership, Volgren and Axalta made a mutual commitment to introduce new control measures to uphold quality standards and ensure the paintwork met the expectations of Volgren’s customers.

A key element of this approach was the introduction of the “AutoPad”, a cloud-based audit which is specifically designed to provide Volgren’s national quality team with detailed, real-time information on the quality of the finished paintwork. The audit measures and reports on several quality aspects, including film thickness, peel factor and gloss levels. Volgren’s quality team uses this information to ensure that the paintwork on all buses is the highest quality and that no sub-standard buses are delivered to their customers.

Talking about meeting this milestone, Commercial Vehicle Manager Michael Busch said: “Volgren’s commitment to achieving the highest possible quality levels aligns perfectly with Axalta’s own mission. For the past four years our businesses have worked together closely, using the information generated from these audits to ensure Volgren’s customers receive globally benchmarked quality vehicles. We take great pride in the fact that wherever you travel throughout Australia, you can see a Volgren bus in great physical condition regardless of how aggressive the external environment.”

Another key benefit of the audit process is that it provides Volgren’s team with valuable information which is used to inform potential design revisions and identify any production or equipment issues or training needs.

Read more about this story on page 16 in The Ultimate Finish, Issue 33 (November 2022) here.