Report on technology trends in the automotive coatings industry

In recent years, the automotive industry has undergone tremendally changes. The popularity of SUVs, the advent of the era of new energy vehicles, the trend of lightweight... In fact, many enterprises on new energy vehicles, lightweight investment, there is still a long way to go, involving material selection, productivity, price and many other issues. However, there has been a marked shift in automotive coatings, which
the
.
feedback from the market, consumers in the purchase of paint products, the requirements for environmental protection is very strict, not only will learn more about the content of harmful substances of the product, but also priority selection of a variety of environmentally certified products. Automotive coatings are moving towards environmental protection and improve the appearance of the vehicle decoration effect of the direction of development, coating technology tends to multi-layer composite coating. There are many types of coatings used in the automotive industry, including automotive body coatings, container coatings, frames and other components of coatings and special coatings. In particular, coatings used in passenger car body coatings represent the highest level of the coating industry due to their high performance requirements.
, domestic automotive coatings to solvent system-based, VOC restrictions have become an important indicator of automotive coatings. Traditional solvent-based coatings VOC emissions of about 125g/m2, water-based coatings VOC emissions of about 27g/m2. Take the current popular flash coating, for example, its VOC emissions accounted for 66% of the total, if the use of water-based coatings, vehicle VOC emissions can be reduced by more than half. We want to present the changes that are taking place in the automotive coatings industry from the perspective of cost, process, environmental protection, etc.
car's coating structure
Classification of body paint
Primer
Automotive primer is the first coating applied directly to the surface-treated body surface.
the status quo
according to the primer in the use of the car, the primer and substrate are required to have good adhesion, and the above medium paint or paint has a good matching. In addition, good corrosion, rust, oil, chemical and water resistance must be in place.
present, almost all passenger car production in China is using cathode electrophoresis primer, only in some passenger cars and trucks also use traditional aolic acid, phenolic or epoxy primer. Electrophoretic paint is developed on the basis of water-based immersion primers, commonly used including epoxy paint, aliclicic resin paint, amino resin paint, phenolic resin paint, etc. ; Membrane thickness is generally 20 to 35 microns, general passenger car cathode electrophoresis paint area of up to 120 square meters or so.
development
the future, the development trend of primers can be summarized as low VOC, no medium coating and low film thickness in three directions. Although electrophoresis paint is water-based paint, but still contains a certain amount of organic solvents, the latest cathode electrophoresis paint solvent content has been reduced from 2% to 3% to 0.4% to 1.8%, greatly reducing VOC emissions. In order to reduce the cost of coating and simplify the coating process, some automobile manufacturers have adopted the coating process without medium coating, but the removal of the coating on the smoothness of electrophoresis primer put forward higher requirements, the thickness of the paint has also increased. Reducing film thickness is mainly achieved by high swimming permeability, high corrosion resistance cathode electrophoresis paint, in general, this method can reduce the amount of paint used by more than 13%. At the same time to ensure that the paint film corrosion resistance is not reduced, such as primer film thickness can be reduced to the outer surface 15 microns, the inner cavity 9 microns, its paint film corrosion resistance and flatness and the outer surface 22 microns, the inner cavity 12 microns equivalent. In addition, the development trend of primers also includes the application of lead-free Wuxi coatings, low-temperature baking coatings, weather-resistant coatings and so on.
is also
second-way slurry, including putty, two-way primer and closed paint, etc.
the
that new car production is no longer using putty, only for car repair. China's heavy vehicles, mini-cars and other commercial vehicles generally do not need to paint but directly on the primer coating paint, plastic parts and components do not need to be applied, such as bumpers or chassis, but whether it is passenger cars or commercial vehicles outside the body, and its later repair needs to be applied. Medium paint is used in automotive primers and varnishes or primers between the coating, play the role of connecting primers and varnishes, can provide the protection of the paint, while providing fill, improve the fullness of the entire paint film. Commonly used medium paint includes polyester resin paint, amino resin paint, epoxy resin paint, polyurethane resin paint, etc. The thickness of the medium coating film is generally 20 to 30 microns, at present, there are still many solvent-based paint.
development
the future of painting in automobiles is mainly towards high solid differentiation, water-based, powdered direction. At present, the main development direction of automotive coatings in the United States is high solid differentiation, high solids in the paint using high solids polyester, polyurethane, ammonia and other resin preparation, its construction solids can be higher than 60%, or even up to 70%, than the traditional paint increased by 10% to 20%, VOC emissions can be reduced by 20% to 30%. Domestic new car coating line in order to meet the requirements of low VOC emissions, the general use of water-based medium paint, such as water-based polyester urethane paint and water-based polyurethane paint, its construction solids generally reached 50% to 60%. Although powder coating is one of the lowest VOC emissions, it has not been used because of color change difficulties and other reasons. At present, in addition to individual automotive parts production lines, there is no precedent for the use of the whole vehicle, but with the improvement of spraying equipment and the maturity of powder water slurry technology, the future of this coating technology will also become one of the choices of automobile manufacturers.
paint
car paint in the car's entire coating mainly play a decorative and protective role, generally including hood paint and color paint.
the
, automotive paint should generally have bright colors, good mechanical properties and excellent weather resistance. Generally speaking, whether it is passenger cars or commercial vehicles, whether it is parts, plastic parts or post-repair need to be painted, but commercial vehicles generally only spray primer paint, no longer covered with varnish, and parts are generally not sprayed primer, only spray paint, and this coating paint sometimes with other anti-corrosion paint instead.
At present, high-grade automotive paint mainly uses amino resins, alicic acid resins, acrylic resins, polyurethane resins as the base material, the choice of bright colors, weather-resistant organic pigments and inorganic pigments, add some additives, such as ultraviolet absorbents, leveling agents, anti-shrink agents, resistance regulators to achieve satisfactory appearance and performance.
development
the future, the direction of the development of paint is water-like, powdered, high solid content. Water-based paint is usually used in the "primer paint and hood varnish" supporting process, because solvent-based primer is the largest source of VOC emissions, accounting for about 50% of the total vehicle body coating process emissions, if the primer paint into water-based paint, VOC emissions can be greatly reduced. However, water-based paint has not been widely used until now, mainly because of the high weather resistance and decorative properties of water-based paint, poor solid face paint, and because it still contains 2% to 15% of organic solvents, the construction environment and drying conditions are higher, the comprehensive cost is too high. However, from the development trend, solvent-free water-based coatings will continue to be the main development direction in the future. At present, the powder cover varnish mainly uses acrylic powder coating, although its cost is significantly higher than the two-part polyurethane varnish, but it saves the operation cost of waste slag treatment, VOC treatment in the process, with the expansion of production scale, raw material costs further reduced, its direct cost will be further close to the two-group polyurethane varnish.
the main domestic production enterprises and market distribution
China's automotive coatings market is relatively closed, generally from which country to introduce car products, on which country to support the use of automotive coatings system. In other words, the domestic high-end automotive paint market is almost monopolized by foreign brands.
large-scale automotive paint production enterprises from abroad entered the Chinese market, the production base was mainly set up around the domestic automobile industry gathering area.
six major companies, including Asda, Libang, PPG, BASF, Korea's KCC and Kansai, have a sales share of more than 80% in China's automotive coatings market and a production share of about 40%. Among them, the Japanese automotive coatings market to Kansai coatings, Libang coatings-based, Korean-based KCC coatings, Europe and the United States to Asda coatings, PPG coatings, BASF coatings, AkzoNobel-based, in the domestic independent brand automotive coatings market, the major international brands have different degrees of market share.
National automotive paint consumption change trend
passenger car paint
the main driving force of the increase in domestic passenger car paint consumption is the growth of automobile sales, while the consumption of single-vehicle paint, by the new coating process and the application of materials, showing a gradual downward trend. The fastest decline was in German passenger cars, followed by American cars. Japanese, Korean and domestic independent brands have declined less due to the low paint base for single-vehicle vehicles.
The fastest growing future consumption of passenger car paint is paint, mainly due to the promotion of the coating-free process in recent years, requiring both paint and paint performance, coupled with a variety of metallic paint and pearl lacquer, such as the need for many times primer spray paint popular, paint film thickness has a growing trend. The medium paint was affected by the chinese coating-free process, and the consumption of single-vehicles decreased.
passenger car paint
as domestic passenger car production began to decline, passenger car paint consumption growth will slow down. And from the consumption of single-vehicle paint, unlike passenger cars, is still steadily improving, especially in the paint growth rate is faster. This is mainly related to the increase in the proportion of large passenger cars.
Domestic automotive original paint is a relatively closed market, the original paint is generally through direct sales from automotive paint manufacturers to vehicle enterprises, which leads to each automotive coating enterprises of the various coating coatings sales to different vehicle enterprises prices are different. The price difference between the sale of car paint of the same brand and specification to domestic and imported cars may vary by 50%. In recent years, the domestic auto original paint market has a vicious price competition situation, even foreign brands, in order to compete for market share, the price also had to make substantial concessions.market demand for
automotive polyurethane coatings
consumption forecast
polyurethane coatings have good wear resistance, corrosion resistance, chemical resistance, hardness, high elasticity and other advantages, in the field of automotive coatings has a wide range of applications and good prospects for development. Global consumption of polyurethane coatings is expected to reach 3.7812 million tons by 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.3% between 2016 and 2023, according to a new study by market research firm Market Research Future. Polyurethane coatings can be divided into two-group polyurethane coatings, single-group water-based polyurethane coatings, photo-cured water-based polyurethane coatings, room temperature-cured water-based polyurethane coatings, third-generation water-based polyurethane coatings (PUA), environmentally friendly low aromatic polyurethane coatings, etc.
Development Trend
In the future, the development direction of china's water-based polyurethane technology focuses on the following aspects: efforts to improve the mechanical properties, solid content and bonding strength of water-based polyurethane materials, especially the initial bonding strength; To solve the problem of poor plumpness and low gloss of water-based polyurethane coating film, develop high-performance coatings and actively explore new applications, solve the application problems of water-based polyurethane technology by further reducing the cost of water-based polyurethane, strengthen basic theoretical research related to water-based polyurethane materials, carry out construction process research, reduce the influence of ambient temperature and humidity on the appearance of water-based polyurethane coating, and strengthen the research and development of water-based polyurethane equipment.
history of the development of
automotive coatings in China's automotive industry in the 64-year history, China's automotive coatings have achieved four major replacements.
the current use of the fourth generation of automotive coatings is the 4th and 5th generation cathode electrophoresis coatings, acid rain, scratch resistance of high-quality acrylic coatings, acrylic polyurethane coatings, paint color for metallic color and color, adapt to the car three-layer coating system of the coating system of the paint as the representative. Is in recent years with the introduction of car products and car body coating line, the world-famous automotive coating company in China set up factories, to meet the international car coating standards and formed. Based on the introduction of car products in different countries, this generation of automotive coatings can still be divided into the Japanese system and the European and American systems.
the 1990s, Automotive plants in Europe and the United States have replaced traditional organic solvent-based automotive coatings with environmentally friendly automotive coatings. By 2001, cars that had adopted water-based midcolor and primer had accounted for 7% and 43% of total production, respectively, in North America and 32.5% and 36% in Europe. Among them, Germany has basically achieved water-like, with 80% of the coating and 93% of the primer. In Asia, only 1.5% of cars use water-based primers.
with the continuous development of the automotive market in the 21st century, consumer demand for automobile consumption is becoming more and more mature, personalized and diversified will become a new growth point. In the highly competitive environment, auto dealers must develop more auto service projects and dig deep into the connotation of automobile culture to meet the needs of consumers, in order to form an individual competitive advantage. The integrated automobile trade service park, through the effective integration of resources, and then import a new planning concept and powerful service functions, to achieve the diversification of the automobile sales market, so it has a strong vitality.
although China's automotive industry is growing, there is still a big gap between automotive coatings and coating technology compared with developed industrial countries. In recent years, China's automobile manufacturing industry has built nearly 20 water-based coating lines, there are still a number of water-based paint coating lines will be built one after another, the automotive industry took the lead in creating water-based coatings, for other industries to promote the application of the demonstration effect. The development of water-based coatings is beneficial to saving resources, improving environmental pollution, implementing clean production and achieving effective social and economic benefits. It can be foreseen that with the continuous progress of coating and coating technology, innovation, in the price of water-based coatings, performance, construction technology, reduce equipment investment, there will be new breakthroughs in promoting and expanding the field of water-based coatings applications have more room for development.
applications of polyurethane coatings in the automotive industry
automotive parts, interior and exterior polyurethane coatings
automotive parts, interior and exterior accessories