There’s an iron law in the paint biz: the faster it dries, the worse it looks. But then AI had a crack at it.
Scientists at paint manufacturer PPG built a database containing the properties of all of their products, overlaid with the laws of chemistry. Not long after, they asked the AI, that trained on the data, to create something new – a faster-drying clear coat that body shops could apply after repainting a car.
Within minutes, the AI system suggested a combination of chemicals PPG’s scientists hadn’t even thought of. Real world testing proved that it worked, and last spring, the clear coat when on sale.
It was PPG’s first AI assisted product. Dozens more are in the pipeline.
This is beyond the usual flyer-printing or nano-banana desktop 3D image generations. This is industry, along with AI, creating formulations that solve problems.
AI tools have helped Procter and Gamble create new scents for body washes, laundry beads and home fragrances. They have allowed Mars to design a thinner-walled bottle for its Extra brand chewing gum that reduced development time by 40 percent and saved 246 tonnes of plastic.
the How
The product development system PPG designed isn’t a LLM that can be subject to hallucinations. It relies on what is called Deterministic AI, in which outputs must conform to the laws of science.
The team spent several years making “digital twins” of PPG’s products, mirroring their formulas and attributes, and then embedding algorithms reflecting chemistry principles.
That gave the system the ability to create near-limitless blends virtually, and to predict how they would perform in the real world.
PPG has a large automotive business and in that industry, paint is applied in layers of several coatings, each of which has its own properties, and each coating can have upwards of 25 ingredients.
“It is impossible for a human to search every possible combination,” said PPG tech manager Jun Deng, “So what AI or ML is doing is helping to see the vast amount of potential options.”
the Result
The company’s test case was a protective clear coat, the final layer in a car’s repainting. It’s drying time can be a pain point in a body shop’s operations, limiting ho many cars the shop can turn over in a day. The question for AI was how to achieve a flawless finish as quickly as possilble.
PGG said its system discovered an unexpected chemical response that reduced the post-spray time from 30 minutes to 5 when heated at 140 degrees. Air drying took less than an hour compared with two hours for competitors’ products, as per PPG.