Mazda's New Aqua-tech Paint System Leads in Reducing Environmental Impact

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN – June 18, 2009: Mazda Motor Corporation has launched its newly-developed Aqua-tech Paint System for vehicle body painting at its Ujina Plant No.1 in Japan.

The innovative new technology achieves the world’s highest standards for limiting emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) contained in paint as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) gas generated from the energy consumed during the vehicle painting process.

The Aqua-tech Paint System maintains the same world-class low CO2 emissions volume as the Three Layer Wet Paint System — Mazda’s paint system currently installed at all of its production facilities in Japan — and reduces VOC emissions by a further 57 percent. At only 15 grams per square metre of vehicle body surface, the extremely low VOC emissions volume makes Aqua-tech the least polluting water-based paint system in the world. The new system also delivers improved paint quality.

Water-based paints tend to produce far lower VOC emissions than solvent-based paints due to their low VOC content. However, drying water-based paint consumes much more energy because the water must be evaporated through a drying process. The large amounts of carbon dioxide produced during this process have long been an issue associated with water-based paint systems. Mazda has solved this problem with the introduction of this new, innovative coating technology.

The Aqua-tech technology includes the introduction of an improved paint shop air-conditioning system and a new, highly efficient evaporation system that removes the water contained in the paint. In addition, Mazda has managed to consolidate the coating processes by developing highly functional top coat paints that exhibit additional properties usually provided by the primer paint. These include brightness, durability and resistance to chipping and light damage. As a result of these technical breakthroughs, Mazda’s Aqua-tech achieves extremely low VOC emissions without increasing CO2 volume.

Going forward, Mazda will continue to advance new technologies based on its long-term vision for technology development, Sustainable Zoom-Zoom. With cutting-edge production facilities that include the paint shop with the smallest environmental impact in the world, Mazda is committed to producing vehicles that offer driving pleasure in harmony with environmental and safety features.

The Ujina Plant No.1, one of Mazda’s main vehicle manufacturing facilities, is located near Mazda’s headquarters in Hiroshima.