Avon Lake, Ohio - The Ford Motor Company has become the first automotive company to paint vehicles using a new 3-wet, high solids-based system. The new technology, which took three years of development and a year of in-plant testing, is environmentally friendly and helps cut costs. The new technology uses a high solids-based paint formulation that produces fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than do water-borne and medium solids-based paints currently used by automakers. The new formula contains more colour pigment and so requires less paint to cover a vehicle. It also allows three layers of wet paint to be applied, one on top of each other, and baked once. This eliminates two paint ovens, resulting in a smaller, more energy-efficient paint shop. According to Ford's tests, high solids-based paint provides better long-term resistance to chips and scratches than does water-borne paint. The water-borne formula also requires air conditioning to get the water out of the paint for a high-quality surface, using more energy and releasing more CO2s from the paint shop. The company will use the new paint on some 400 U-Haul utility vans, which will be monitored over the next year to collect real-world data on the technology. Source: CanadianDriver
It is great to hear they are going through some serious testing and trial with the U-Haul fleet. We wouldn't want a repeat of the early eighties switch over to water based paints.
Toyota is now using low-VOC paints, runnning about 50 grams VOC per sq. meter painted: http://www.toyota-body.co.jp/english/kanky...006/P22_P31.pdf This ref says they are at 30 with a goal of 25: http://www.autoblog.com/2006/04/08/toyotas...llout-complete/ Ford was recently at 26: http://www.ford.com/en/company/about/susta...nvReviewVOC.htm But I cannot readily find the VOC/area emissions of Ford's new paint system.
