What Are the Best Automotive Priming & Painting Processes?

The best automotive painting and priming processes are made of innovations that make traditional processes more efficient, less costly and more environmentally safe. Priming has been improved upon with the development of ultraviolet resistance in one kind of primer to the complete elimination of priming drying time. Painting has been enhanced with more efficient quality control and the advent of low volatile organic compounds.

Priming

The best priming methods employ the application of a primer that is resistant to the effects of ultraviolet light and deters paint from peeling from the surface of a vehicle. The process entails applying an initial coat of primer paint that is electrodeposited or fortified with negatively charged polymers. This coat creates a base to which all subsequent paint coats may adhere. A second coat of primer is necessary to prevent chipping and delamination of the primary coat. The best second coat is either water-based or solvent in water because these are resistant to ultraviolet light. They can be found in liquid and powder form, with the powder form being the more durable of the two.

Ultrasonic Lasers

Research engineers at the Industrial Materials Institute of the National Research Institute of Canada have confirmed that the use of a laser ultrasonic system to control for wet paint thickness is one of the best quality control mechanisms in the automotive painting industry. The resonance of ultrasonic echoes measure the thickness of wet base coats. These measurements determine if a base coat needs to be reapplied. It saves time and money by being able to measure the paint thickness of each car in real time. Without this technology, only dry coats can be evaluated manually resulting in one in 500 cars being evaluated at a time. Cars in an assembly line that were painted before the error detection would have to be repainted costing automotive manufacturers millions of dollars.

B1:B2 Technology

In June 2010, PPG Industries began the use of their B1:B2 compact paint system technology at car manufacturing plants in the United States. This technology eliminates the expensive and time-consuming drying process between primer, primary base coat and clear coat applications. B1 and B2 are separate layers of wet water solvent paint that may be applied on top of each other without an extensive drying time in between applications. The B1 layer serves as a primer, filling in surface imperfections and it also provides durability against paint chipping. The B2 layer acts a base coat and clear coat, providing color and additional durability.

Volatile Organic Compound Elimination

Automotive painting does not only include the coating of vehicle body panels; bolts and fasteners also have to be covered. These small parts are primarily coated in metallic paint. Engineers of NOF Metal Coatings Europe were awarded the 2010 European Responsible Care Award for their metal paint invention. Specifically, the French company developed an anticorrosive coating that does not contain environmentally harmful volatile organic compounds like hexavalent chromium, methanol or ethoxylated nonylphenol. This paint perfects the automotive painting process by making it more environmentally friendly.