Automobile coatings producers and their suppliers in Europe are having to become increasingly versatile innovators in order to stay competitive in a fast expanding world market.

The European market itself is only showing moderate growth.  But Europe still remains an important source of innovation in the global automobile sector.

In automobile coatings there is the usual emphasis on the need to develop new colors and special effects.  But these have to meet the needs of  an expanding  population of car buyers who are becoming even more individualistic  in their tastes.

Also car manufacturers are wanting the coatings makers  to introduce technologies and efficiencies  which help reduce their production costs.  This includes creating systems for collecting and analyzing data from their paint shops which help to raise productivity.

At the same time the manufacturers are looking for technological initiatives covering a much broader range of needs in coatings  – such as greater functionality, reduced emissions, more regulatory compliance, reduced energy consumption and lower maintenance costs.  In addition there are the requirements of new types of vehicles and their components, like electric vehicles and their hybrids  and semi and fully autonomous cars.

These trends were highlighted recently  by PPG Industries during a press visit to its main European technical center for decorative OEM coating at Ingersheim, near Stuttgart,  in one of Germany’s large car manufacturing clusters in the southwest of the country. 

PPG  claims to be  the world leader in the global OEM  coatings  market, ahead of the other two main players,  BASF  and Axalta Coatings  Systems. It has over 50 car manufacturing customers, a high proportion  of them active in the European market.

By 2025 the global automotive  industry would be producing 106.5 million vehicles  annually, partly as a result of 70 percent growth in Asia,  By 2019 the numbers of new vehicle launches  will  reach 137,  20 percent higher than in 2015, William Brunat, PPG‘s technical director for Europe, told journalists  citing figures from the consultancy IHS  Markit.

These rising number of launches would bring “increased complexity and market pressure on automakers and on their supplies,” he warned.

PPG, which reckons that it already has more technology platforms  for its OEM  coatings than its competitors, is expanding into new areas like autonomous cars,  digitalization and battery coatings.

It considers  that there are five big innovation drivers in OEM  coatings: safety and security, like light-weighting and autonomous  systems; environment, covering emissions and toxic chemicals; asset protection, such as corrosion and  scratch resistance; energy and costs; and comfort and leisure, covering color and functionality.

“Our number one priority is the environment  to make sure that what we supply is clean and sustainable,”  said Brunat.  “After that  the priority is helping  to reduce  costs and make savings.”

The new technological directions the company is taking are shown by the products it has recently commercialized, those under development and those which are subject to feasibility studies.

Among the recently launched products   have been functionality coatings such as one  which dampens sounds inside vehicles to  provide quieter driving  and the world’s first  scratch-resistant clearcoat  developed with Mercedes.

PPG  is also helping to extend the digitalization of  OEM paint shops  by introducing a computer  tablet with software, called Performa, which paint shop staff will use to collect  and analyze  data.
“The analysis will optimize  the paint shop’s output in terms of  energy consumption, materials savings  and quality,” said Brunat.

Those  coatings under development  include electric  vehicle  battery  coatings  which use  graphene to enhance conductivity, coatings with Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) properties which determine the direction of autonomous vehicles, tire barrier coatings and easy-to-clean (E2C) automotive coatings.

Among the new technologies on which PPG is conducting feasibility studies are  intelligent surfaces,  3D  additive  manufacturing, thermally conductive inks and polyurea  chemistry.

In the development of  colors,  PPG  has  continued to exploit  its  nanotech expertise in the shaping and sizing of  particles which create different strengths  and grades of color. 

“We  are continually looking to  improve the processing of pigments, particularly in the ways they are ground,”  explained  Reine Mueller-Koerber, PPG’s color styling technical manager in Europe. 

“We are aiming for cleaner colors  and pigments  which behave like dyes.”

In its current prediction of color  trends, PPG believes that there  will be greater variety of preferences.  There will be a continued  adherence to traditional colors  based on the appearance of  natural materials  such as wood,  marble and stone.

“White continues to be popular but it is becoming a colder, more technical white,” said Daniele Nicoletti, another PPG  specialist. “With some groups of car owners there is a growing preference for clearer, brighter colors.”

PPG’s  Andaro dispersions system,  using nano scale  particles, helps  PPG  provide  coatings with a  greater concentration of pigment and hence  color intensity.

“Andaro  gives  an extra  20-30 percent of brightness,  50 percent more color and extra depth,” said  Mueller-Koerber.  “We are seeing some unexpected  vivid  colors  become popular  like  different shades  of yellow.   A big liking for orange  has been surprising.  Also red is continuing to rise in popularity.”

In Europe the choice of  colors  by purchasers  is  depending  on the size and shape of the car, with white continuing to the most preferred  in most categories.  The exceptions are  gray in luxury autos  and black in midsized ones, according to PPG Global Color Trends 2016.

Buyers of SUVs  seem to like color the most with 28 percent selecting chromatic  colors. In the midsize  category the choice of chromatic  colors  rose from 18 percent to 22 percent last year. With compact  cars 19 percent preferred  blue or red.

“We have  been seeing changes  in what is influencing people’s color  preferences with cars,” explained Mueller-Koerber.  “Fashion in clothes  is no longer  a leading force. Consumer electronics  and  furniture are having more of an impact.  But these don’t  dictate  long term trends.  With cars,  people want  attractive colors  but their choice is  guided by quality issues as well.”

The next step could be the personalization of car colors for a growing proportion of automobile purchasers.  This will be made possible by the digitalization of paint shops. It will be yet another big innovation challenge for auto coatings producers and  their suppliers.