About G.B.I.E.
G.B.I.E. was incorporated in 1973 and was initially involved in PVC compounding and PVC automotive fabric recycling. This evolved into designing PVC compounding, sheet extrusion and calendering plants for the manufacture of products for the automotive industry. In the early 1980’s G.B.I.E. consulted with a major auto parts supplier to design and build the first PVC on metal co-extrusion line in North America for automotive exterior trim. G.B.I.E. developed an adhesive to bond the PVC to the metal in the co-extrusion and soon after developed P-VALOY, a low cost replacement for EPDM in these co-extrusions. The unique properties of P-VALOY allowed it to be painted in high-temperature bake paint systems identical to those used for engineering polymers. Paint lines were designed and built to support the use of P-VALOY on Cadillac vehicles and the Ford Taurus/Sable models.
A new era at G.B.I.E. began in 1986 with the development of a solvent based coating system to replace flocking in window seals. In 1990 a water-based product was developed for the same purpose. In 1991 G.B.I.E. was manufacturing and marketing these products, generically known as “SLIP-COAT”, for use on elastomer and plastic automotive weather seals. The first use of SLIP-COAT, and we believe the first ever coating for this kind of application, was on the GM Buick Skylark rear window which was encapsulated with PU-RIM. The SLIP-COAT reduced the abrasion on the painted sheet metal and eliminated squeak and itch noises. A highly abrasion resistant SLIP-COAT for EPDM sponge found it’s first use in 1993 on the Toyota Corolla/Geo Prism weatherseal.
Since then many grades of SLIP-COAT have been developed to adhere to specific substrates and solve particular problems such as: squeak and itch noise reduction; part abrasion resistance and durability; reduce or eliminate abrasion to painted sheet metal; low coefficient of friction (reduce window/door closing effort); glass release; ice-release; and provide controlled surface gloss and hand. As of December 2006, G.B.I.E. was manufacturing 16 grades of
SLIP-COAT to parts manufacturers in a dozen countries who supply 16 OEM’s. Furthermore, G.B.I.E. is constantly developing new grades of SLIP-COAT for customer driven applications. Currently there are 20 experimental grades that are ready for use.
G.B.I.E. is working closely with partners on several exciting new projects that may lead to new grades of SLIP-COAT and new automotive and non-automotive uses of SLIP-COAT. G.B.I.E. is unique in the coatings industry in that we do not employ a sales force! Our sales come from word of mouth that is driven by our timely delivery of superior coatings with unique properties, our excellent technical knowledge, fast development of new SLIP-COAT grades, and our technical support in our customers’ factory combined with our in house lab work.
Location
G.B.I.E. is a proud Canadian company located just outside Canada’s automotive capital of Windsor, Ontario, which is just across the river from Detroit, Michigan. We are 15 minutes from the Canada-U.S. border and 40 minutes from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. We are an easy drive from the technical centers for the Big Three North American Automakers. As a point of trivia, we are actually south of all three technical centers!
Business Model
G.B.I.E. is an ISO 9000:2001 certified company. G.B.I.E. has been very successful with an approach that is unique among coatings manufacturers. We will not provide samples or production material without taking the time to ensure that the SLIP-COAT we are supplying is our best grade for the customers’ substrate and application. Some may view this as an obvious step, while others may think it is restrictive, however, we have proven time and again to ourselves and our customers that there is no single coating that will work in all applications or for all purposes. So, rather than saying we know which coating will be the best for a particular substrate, we always prove which coating is the best for the substrate and application.
G.B.I.E. has never had a sales force. We firmly believe that our best marketing tool is the combination of our superior grades of SLIP-COAT and our technical assistance, both at our customers’ location and in house. For this reason, we focus our efforts on SLIP-COAT research and development. These efforts have led to an excellent industry reputation for SLIP-COAT products. Our customers know to use G.B.I.E. SLIP-COAT if they want to make high quality parts with a durable, long lasting coating.
G.B.I.E.'s R&D lab is equipped with custom test equipment to assess SLIP-COAT abrasion resistance as well as the adhesion between the substrate and SLIP-COAT. In addition, G.B.I.E. has an acoustic laboratory to measure the sound generated between coatings and mating surfaces under a variety of conditions.
Although G.B.I.E. is proudly Canadian, we know that the international currency of business is the U.S. dollar. All of our products are priced in U.S. dollars to avoid currency fluctuations.
To support our European customers, we stock a warehouse in Bremerhaven, Germany (shipments are FOB Bremerhaven), or when justified we ship entire containers directly to our customer.