USCAR: U.S. Automakers See the Power of Powder to Benefit Environment
8 September 1997
USCAR: U.S. Automakers See the Power of Powder to Benefit Environment
Competitors Cooperating for Cleaner Painting Processes
WIXOM, Mich., Sept. 8 -- Is that the body of a Dodge Neon, a
Lincoln Town Car and a Chevrolet Lumina coming down the same assembly plant
paint line? Aren't these three American car companies fierce competitors?
They are indeed. However, at a Ford assembly plant in Wixom, Mich., a
Detroit suburb, the companies have come together to leverage their strengths
in a most unexpected way. Together, they've built and are managing a $20
million test facility that's about the size of 10 large homes -- 36,000 square
feet.
Why? The three automakers, under their United States Council for
Automotive Research (USCAR) umbrella organization, want someday to be able to
use environmentally-friendly powder paint as the shiny, "clear coat" top layer
of paint on their new vehicles. Currently, powder paint is only used as a
primer coat (vehicle bodies have three different paint coats: primer, color
and clear coat).
Today's event comes on the eve of National Pollution Prevention Week --
September 15-19 -- which highlights the importance of stopping pollution at
the source, rather than at "the-end-of-the-pipe." The USCAR powder paint
facility aims to reduce or eliminate ozone-forming gases released into the
atmosphere when applying liquid-based clear coat paint. Additionally, the
over-spray from liquid-based paints is collected as waste sludge and taken to
landfills; in contrast, the over-spray from powder paints may be reclaimed and
recycled.
The vehicle bodies painted today won't end up as completed vehicles and be
sold to consumers. Instead, the bodies -- along with fenders, hoods and
trunklids -- will be used in later tests where they will be sprayed with
powder paint, cleaned off and repainted. This test process will be repeated
over and over at up to assembly line speeds as different powder paint
formulations, spray nozzles and other related equipment are examined. It is
hoped that this USCAR pre-competitive research project will greatly benefit
the environment.
"Since the 1960s, hydrocarbon emissions from the domestic automakers'
paint processes at assembly plants have been reduced by 80 percent," said
Ernie McLaughlin, Chrysler's lead representative to USCAR's paint consortium.
"Chrysler, Ford and GM did this separately. Now we're working together to
achieve further improvements quicker and at lower cost. But who would have
ever thought it would involve a project of such magnitude?"
The environmental benefit of using powder paint is that the over-spray can
be captured, filtered and reconditioned, mixed with new powder paint and
applied to subsequent vehicles coming down the line. By contrast, over-spray
from liquid paints used in today's assembly plants is collected and hauled off
to landfills. Furthermore, unlike conventional liquid-based paint, powder
paint doesn't release ozone-forming gases into the atmosphere when applied.
The project is one of the many efforts by Chrysler, Ford and GM to further
reduce the environmental impact of the automotive industry.
The USCAR prove-out facility at Wixom represents a big step in clear coat
powder paint development, according to Ford's Rich Pearson. "The transition
from lab to assembly plant is too great with this technology. We have to
learn how to deal with tons of powder a day." That's why the three companies
built the facility that opened last year, so researchers could approximate the
conditions of a production paint line, something that laboratories can't do.
There are major technical and economic hurdles to overcome, but if the
tests prove successful, the revolutionary technology could eventually be used
in automotive assembly plants around the world. Many already utilize powder
paint for primer coats, but using powder paint for the clear coat is more
difficult because it's the final layer applied to a vehicle and therefore must
provide a more lustrous and even more resilient surface than the primer coat.
The challenge for the USCAR engineers and technicians at Wixom is to do this
affordably.
Some fenders, hoods and trunklids sprayed by the USCAR team with the clear
coat powder paint will then move on to a cure oven where the powder particles
will be melted and fused to the surface of the metal, and then carefully
examined. As part of the testing, parts are exposed to extreme heat, humidity
and cold weather conditions for extended periods. Complete bodies also will
be sprayed with powder clear coat, cured, and then assembled into actual
production vehicles and put in test fleets.
Such an ambitious project cannot be undertaken by the automotive
manufacturers alone. Over 40 suppliers are participating in the project with
materials, equipment and facilities, including ITW-Ransburg from Indianapolis,
Ind.; Siebert Powder Coating from Cleveland, Ohio; and ABB of Auburn Hills,
Mich. According to Tom Meschievitz, GM's lead representative working on the
project, "The Wixom clear coat powder paint prove-out facility allows us to
send one message to the supply base: 'This is a problem for all of us. We
need combined efforts to resolve it.'"
The powder paint program is one of the many environmental and technical
projects by Chrysler, Ford and GM under their USCAR umbrella organization.
Other programs deal with such pre-competitive projects as vehicle recycling,
vehicle emissions, advanced occupant restraint systems, foundry emissions and
advanced technologies for highly fuel efficient vehicles.
SOURCE United States Council for Automotive Research
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