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Technology revolutionizes car paints

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The “engineer Carlo” (Riva was called this way), the genius of boating, was one of the first in the world to understand it: the color of a vehicle is not important, but the reflections that its paint gives. So on his motorboats he applied 12 coats of marine paint, for a total of two months of work. The result was a show: the hulls reflected the colors of the sea with hypnotic effects: you could spend hours watching an Aquarama float.

Today this is the last frontier of car paints. The reflections. In practice, the car manufacturers with technology are able to reproduce the effects invented by Carlo Riva: crystal effect colors. In this case – not being able to spend two months painting a sanding machine several times, micro-flakes of glass are used in combination with the metallic effect to create a myriad of light points. For this reason, modern paints shine differently according to the incidence of sunlight and change their chromatic tone according to the observation perspectives.

Easy to say but these paints are technically very complicated. The paint is in fact made up of five thin layers: cathodic immersion paint (Ktl), filler, base color and clear coat are added to the base coat. Overall, these layers do not exceed the thickness of a tenth of a millimeter; as much as a human hair. And obviously everything must be very robust: we are not talking about a painting but the body of a car. Thus, to meet the high quality standards and the stresses associated with the daily use of the cars, the paints are subjected to multiple short and long-term tests, including resistance to contact with crushed stone and atmospheric agents.

It is clear that in these production processes the role of factories plays a fundamental role (the paints are applied by robots). And here we have reached an incredible new record, torn by Audi: cars with matt and glossy colors can come out of the same paint line at the Gyor plant. A refinement never before developed by the German house – for now on the TT and Q3 – in order to spread these exclusive finishes more and more.

But when we talk about paints, a place in the sun obviously belongs to His Majesty Rolls Royce who still today – as in the old days – uses 50 (fifty!) Kg of paint on each car and a worker who freehand finishes with the famous ” fillets ”the body shops. We are not in the two months of an Aquarama but in any case to give color to a Rolls still today it takes seven hours of work. A small record.

The BMW that changes color works like this


Nostalgia aside, the painting of cars has changed a lot over the years: from the nanotechnologies that lead to the colors that repair themselves from scratches, to the BMW that changes color, the latter just presented – to general amazement – at the last Ces di Las Vegas. We are talking about the BMW iX Flow, for now still in an experimental phase: here the surface of the car can change hue at the request of the driver. The fluid color changes are possible thanks to a coating specially developed for body builders: through an electrical impulse, the electrophoretic technology brings different color pigments to the surface, making the bodywork take on the desired color.

E Ink technology thus opens up new avenues for modifications to the vehicle’s appearance based on the driver’s aesthetic preferences, environmental conditions or even functional requirements. We are not just talking about a game and opportunities to customize the exterior design, but also to improve the car’s energy efficiency: for example, the white color in summer saves fuel because the air conditioner absorbs less energy to cool the passenger compartment.

And then there is the technology of Nissan Motors Co. with its paint, “Scratch Guard Coat”, which thanks to a resin with a high degree of elasticity is able to prevent damage to the lower layers, and to return to the original state from alone “from one day to a week”, depending on the temperature and depth of the sign. Not only that: this paint is also ultra-resistant to scratches compared to a conventional dye. Who knows what Carlo Riva would think of all this.

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