Ford’s expanded manufacturing facility near Chennai will be the first Ford car assembly plant in the world to pioneer a new, high-tech paint process that not only delivers higher-quality finishes but also brings important environmental benefits.

The new technology, called a Three-Wet High Solids system, will be used in the production of Ford’s soon-to-be-introduced new car for India and key global export markets.  With this eco-friendly approach, vehicles are painted in three wet coats without baking between coats. 

The new paint process, which eliminates the primer ovens used in traditional paint shops, produces less carbon dioxide emissions and reduces volatile organic compounds emissions by about 20 percent as compared to current medium-solids solvent-borne paints.

Painting vehicles has traditionally been one of the auto industry’s biggest environmental challenges but Ford has come up with an eco-friendly, cost-efficient solution that produces beautifully painted vehicles with long-term durability.  The new three-wet high-solids paint shop at Ford’s integrated manufacturing facility near Chennai was one of the key focal points of Ford’s $500 million investment in expanding the facility.

“It’s not very often that we can deliver quality, cost and environmental objectives with a single paint technology,” said Kalyan Murugan, project manager for Ford India’s paint shop. “We’re excited to launch this breakthrough technology in India.”

Solid Quality Story
The pioneering Ford three-wet high-solids paint system is all about delivering vehicles with world-class quality and finishes with outstanding gloss and depth of colour.

The system allows Ford to specify special paint formulations which contains new polymers and other additives.  These minimise running and sagging during the application process – and that allows for three coats of wet paint – primer, base coat and clear coat – to be applied one over the other without baking between coats. 

The technology also eliminates the primer ovens and primer preparation booth, resulting in significant reductions in operational costs, energy use and greenhouse emissions, all important considerations for Ford and the community. 

The new formulation contains more paint solids, which means less paint is needed to cover a vehicle than the medium solids technology. 

Laboratory tests have shown that the high-solids, solvent-borne paint provides better long-term resistance to scratches than water-borne paint and medium-solids solvent-borne paint. Three-wet high-solids paint finishes also promise better durability.

First for India
Ford pioneered the three-wet high-solids technology at the Avon Lake plant for trucks in the U.S. in 2007 and will be the only automaker to use it in India.  Following its first application on the soon to be introduced new Ford Endeavour, this process will be used for the first time on Ford passenger cars with the debut of Ford’s new small car to be manufactured at Maraimalai Nagar.  The paint system is already in operation in prototyping and production ramp-up, prior to its volume-production kickoff early in 2010. 

Ford has partnered with paint suppliers BASF and PPG and facility supplier Dürr for this project. 

The new paint line at Chennai more than doubles the plant’s hourly vehicle capacity, up from 15 vehicles per hour to 34 vehicles per hour, reflecting the new plant’s higher production volumes.

Specialized robotic paint units apply the paint coats quickly, efficiently and evenly.  The new paint booth uses 16 such robots – eight for the base coat application and four each for the primer and clear coat.  

The new system also incorporates a new robotic underbody sealer application process. It uses three robots to apply the sealer, a quicker, higher quality approach for vehicle durability.

After the finishes are applied, each vehicle then passes through one of two new baking ovens. 

Hydraulic pumps are used in preparation and delivery of different paint colours. The new painting line has flexibility for up to 11 different exterior colour variations.

Courtesy: Ford Motor Company

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Posted by Naresh Koshti on 4 September, 2009 1:57:34 PM IST #