PPG's New Auto Coatings Push Performance Envelope
13 January 2000
PPG's New Auto Coatings Push Performance Envelope
DETROIT--Jan. 13, 2000--Advanced automotive coatings that make painting new cars more efficient and environment-friendly, as well as autos more durable and their finishes more dazzling, are being introduced by the world's leading producer of transportation coatings.Officials of PPG Industries said a smaller array of innovative, competitively superior technologies will reduce coating system costs for automakers. They said it will also meet or exceed auto companies' increasingly stringent performance, environmental and productivity requirements, as well as costs of ownership for car buyers through enhanced coating durability performance.
Working with automakers around the world, PPG is producing new high-performance pretreatment, corrosion-inhibitor, primer-surfacer, sound-deadener, color and clear coatings. These technologies, and recently-introduced PPG automotive glass products, were described to journalists previewing Detroit's North American International Auto Show.
Auto coating technology has advanced dramatically since the 1970s. Perhaps most obvious to motorists is rust protection, largely from PPG's patented, electrically-deposited (e-coat) corrosion-inhibiting primers that have become a global industry standard since their introduction in 1976.
Coating an auto body begins with a cleansing pretreatment process to enhance coating adhesion. This is followed by a corrosion inhibitor and a primer-surfacer that smoothes the surface for finish coats and provides ultraviolet radiation and chip resistance. Finally, the color is applied in one or more coats, and a clear finish protects and enhances the color layer.
An environmentally-benign sound-deadening coat, replacing hand-installed acoustic pads, is a new PPG addition to this array.
These are the coating developments -- several already adopted by some automakers -- discussed by PPG officials:
| -- | Nupal pretreatment, an organic compound launched in August that is free of the nickel, chrome and nitrite in conventional pretreatments. It reduces steps in the process as much as 50 percent, and reduces water consumption substantially. |
| -- | Enviro-Prime 2000 lead-free electrodeposition corrosion-inhibiting primer that eliminates the tiny amount of lead (about 1.5 percent in a cured coating) in regular e-coats. PPG officials said the epoxy cross-linked urethane, being adopted at several auto plants, further reduces already-minimal volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, is Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) compliant, and covers more efficiently and cures at lower temperatures to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. |
| -- | The lead-free e-coat is also compatible with PPG's unique Power-Prime two-bath e-coat system introduced last year, and is being used in the system's first commercial installation at a DaimlerChrysler plant in Brazil. The Power-Prime system applies a corrosion-inhibiting coating, and then the world's first e-coat primer-surfacer to eliminate less efficient and less uniform sprayed primer-surfacers. The system emits nearly no VOCs. |
| -- | BRP-HD 100-percent solids, VOC-free epoxy sound-deadener applied by robotic spray to permit varying coating thickness on specific areas for optimal performance and cost benefits. Sprayed on floors, doors, roofs, fire walls and wheel wells, it replaces die-cut acoustic padding, expensive to install and inventory, and, according to PPG officials, reduces vehicle weight by several pounds. They said initial users report "substantial" cost savings. |
| -- | Third-generation, low-VOC Envirobase latex-acrylic waterborne color base coat that accommodates a broader temperature and humidity range in application and cure to reduce paint shop air-conditioning equipment and operating costs. Benefits of lower cure temperatures include lower energy costs and carbon dioxide emissions. |
| -- | CeramiClear clear coat, a unique chemistry that PPG officials said achieves unequaled marring resistance and enhances the color coat's brilliance even more than clear coats now in use. It resists such finish-appearance hazards as swirls from car washing, key dings around door locks, and degradation from intense sunlight, acid rain and salt air. |
| -- | PPG is also developing a lower-cost "global" powder clear coat, expanding on solvent-free Enviracryl coating -- the world's first successful automotive powder clear coat introduced two years ago on BMWs made in Germany. The most environment-friendly and fastest-growing coatings type, powders are VOC-free, and, according to PPG officials, over-spray can be recycled, and they require no aggressive clean-up chemicals and much less paint booth ventilation, with recirculation of most air volume, to reduce energy consumption. |
PPG, with production operations in 23 countries, is the only manufacturer supplying both coatings and glass -- virtually the entire exterior surface of a car -- to the auto industry. It also is a leading maker of fiber glass and chemicals.
Internet: www.ppg.com