Red Spot
All this change in the automotive market is opening the door
for changes to conventional ideas and expectations of what interior and exterior colors should be, as well as textures, glosses,
hues and contrasts.
Younger people, as exhibited by their phone covers, computer
skins, clothing, shoes and overall style, aren’t necessarily looking
for a silver car with black interior. Expectations in terms of style
carries over to their vehicles, and we will see more vibrant colors and hues going forward.
The global automotive OEM coatings sales correlate very
highly with auto production, as you would imagine. From a tra-
ditional design and assembly process standpoint, the sheet metal
continues to be electro coat, prime, base coat and clear coat.
Continuous, evolutionary change continues, as coatings and
processes are developed to minimize the environmental impact
by reducing VOCs and reducing energy usage associated with
traditional paint application processes. Both the U.S. and Europe
lead in many of these areas, moving from solventborne coatings
to waterborne coatings, and designing and developing coatings
and processes that eliminate bake cycles, i.e., wet on wet on wet
application. Other exterior coating applications continue to in-
clude fascia and grills, wheel covers, body side molding/ trim,
mirrors, door handles, spoilers, roof racks, ground effects and li-
cense plate surrounds,
From an interior standpoint, we see continued, added em-
phasis on using coatings to add richness, luxury, feel and design
elements to the car. As the major automotive magazines continue
to report, consumers don’t like cheap plastic. Today’s high per-
formance, low and high gloss coatings, along with design ele-
ments such as graining/texturing, allow OEM’s to turn cheap
plastic into rich, luxurious parts, offering a final interior that is
greater than the sum of its parts.
Auto OEM chart.
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