Coatings & Blending
Chemistry, blending and testing under one roof
IXS Coatings creates and controls the coatings value chain from formulation through blending and packaging to application. Proprietary polyurea formulations are developed in-house, blended and packaged at the group's Lebanon, Tennessee operation, validated in an accredited laboratory on the same site, and applied through three separate commercial channels — supported in the field by the group's own technical specialists and automated application capability.
Formulation
Proprietary polyurea formulations are developed in-house.
Blending & packaging
Blended and packaged at the group's Lebanon, Tennessee operation, validated in an accredited laboratory on the same site.
Application
Applied through three separate commercial channels — supported in the field by the group's own technical specialists and automated application capability.
The Lebanon blending and packaging operation
In 2022, IXS purpose-built a coatings blending and packaging platform in Lebanon, Tennessee, with Ultimate Linings as the operating business. The facility brings formulation, application innovation and testing, raw material storage, blending, packaging, and distribution together in purpose-built infrastructure sized for growth rather than current demand.
The total economic investment in the facility was nearly $100 million, funded through a combination of group capital and external financing.
Before that investment, IXS depended on third-party toll blending for a significant share of production. That dependency meant limited control over when material was produced, how much was available, and how fast supply recovered from disruption — a weakness the 2019–2021 period exposed sharply.
Tested in 2026
Renewed geopolitical disruption in the Middle East, combined with an incident at a major Texas raw material facility, tightened chemical supply across the polyurea market in 2026. Many suppliers again struggled to source material.
IXS was in a different position. Long-standing supplier relationships, increased purchasing power, substantial on-site raw material storage, dedicated blending infrastructure and warehousing allowed Lebanon to hold its production schedule. Customer orders continued to be fulfilled, and internal OEM and aftermarket requirements were supported at the same time while simultaneously significantly mitigating and shielding our customers from price spikes felt by others.
The laboratory
A state-of-the-art, ISO/IEC 17025-accredited testing laboratory sits inside the Lebanon facility, giving the group formal technical capability alongside its blending operation. ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is independent recognition of a laboratory's technical competence, granted against specific test methods rather than issued as a general credential — so the scope is auditable, not asserted.
The laboratory supports material development, performance evaluation, quality programs and technical validation across the group's coating technologies. Because it sits within the blending and packaging operation, formulation work and production quality control run against the same accredited methods.
Polyurea expertise across the group
Polyurea runs through the technical DNA of IXS. Group experience spans formulation, blending and packaging, through to high-volume OEM application and field level protective systems application — an unusually complete view of a single technology.
GFX Solutions
GFX Solutions integrates protective coatings into OEM vehicle programs.
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LINE-X
LINE-X brings the technology to the aftermarket through its franchise network.
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Ultimate Linings
Ultimate Linings innovates, blends, packages and sells the coating systems to a diverse range of customers in the Utility, Infrastructure, Oil, Gas and Industrial markets where harsh environments demand the rigor of polyurea's strength and durability to protect assets.
Read moreFormulation and color development
Chemistry expertise enables formulating to specification and application environment. Rather than fitting a customer to an existing product, the group develops coating systems around the requirement — substrate, service environment, abrasion and chemical exposure, cure schedule, film build and finish.
Color is part of that. Formulations are matched to specified colors for OEM programs, brand standards and industrial identification schemes, developed and validated in the same facility that blends and packages them. For any customer, large or small, that means a coating that meets the engineering and application specification with the color standard together, from one supplier.
Development runs against the accredited laboratory and spray test facility on site, so a new formulation is evaluated on real performance data before it reaches a customer's asset. The combination of in-house formulation, in-house blending and packaging, accredited testing and field application capability is what allows the group to deliver a complete solution rather than a pail, drum, tote or bulk tanker of material.
Application capability:
people and robotics
Formulating the chemistry only matters if it can be applied correctly. Polyurea is unforgiving — cure times are often measured in seconds, and surface preparation, substrate temperature, humidity and film build all change the outcome. Two capabilities close the gap between formulation and finished coating.
Best-in-class field technical support
Group technical specialists work alongside applicators and customers on site, not from a phone queue. That covers specification and system selection, equipment setup and calibration, applicator training, on-site troubleshooting and post-application evaluation. When a coating has to perform against a specific substrate in a specific environment, the people who know the formulation are the people in the field.
Automation and robotics
The group has developed robotic expertise to design and build automated application capability in demanding field conditions to deliver consistent film thickness and coverage across large or difficult geometries. Our automated and robotically applied polyurea coatings capabilities enable us to assist the customer in bringing an application process which holds tight tolerances while scaling across high volumes.
Few coatings suppliers do both. Strong technical field support and OEM level automation impose opposite constraints — one demands ruggedness and adaptability, the other precision and cycle time. Having built for both, the group can serve any customer in any environment while delivering the best total polyurea solution to protect the customers' assets.
Industrial markets
Ultimate Linings is extending polyurea technology into industrial applications outside of automotive — utilities, infrastructure, oil and gas, construction, marine and beyond.
What makes that expansion credible is deployment capability rather than the formulation alone. Industrial coating work is rarely done in ideal conditions: it happens on structures that cannot be moved, in weather that cannot be scheduled, to tolerances that still have to be met. The combination of formulation expertise, on-site technical support and application experience is what allows the group to take a specification written in Lebanon and deliver it in the field.
