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3M is a name long associated with innovative products for
automotive professionals, designing, making and marketing unique solutions
that have helped automotive professionals accomplish their car care tasks easier
and faster for more than nine decades. 3M's automotive history dates back to
the company's very beginning, and the decades-long association with the automobile
has resulted in a broad range of solutions for automotive professionals and
owners.
3M as a company was formed in 1902 and its first sale to the automotive industry came in 1916 when it introduced its revolutionary 3M™ Wetordry™ Abrasive. Abrasives were followed by masking tapes invented by 3M in 1926 to help paint shops achieve razor-sharp two-tone paint jobs. In the decades that followed, 3M introduced dozens of other innovative automotive products. In 1936, 3M invented Scotchlite reflective sheeting for retroreflective vehicle and highway safety markings.
In 1946, 3M Di-Noc woodgrain decorative film was introduced to replace wood trim. The film spawned a whole series of automotive decorative films, many still being used today in place of painted automotive decoration. Today, 3M is a major player in the automotive industry with about $20 of content on every vehicle made worldwide each year.
As a testimony to 3M's unrivalled quality, its products are officially licensed by The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the largest sanctioning body of motorsports in the United States. Today 3M Automotive manufactures and markets over 1,000 different products that go in or on vehicles or that are used in the manufacturing process. These products are used in the body, paint shop, chassis, powertrain, exterior and interior of vehicles.
3M Automotive, like its $23 billion parent company, is a transnational organization and operates in over 60 countries around the globe. 3M Automotive's products, services, technologies and solutions are available around the world with manufacturing facilities in more than 30 plants around the world, and research and development activities in three dedicated research facilities-in the US, Germany and Japan.
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