Metallic powder coating for aluminum wheels
From the viewpoint of measures for environmental issues, the amount of solvents in paint for aluminum wheels needs to be minimized. Environmentally friendly powder coatings have been used widely for primer coating and clear coating, but there is no precedent for its use for base coating. This time, we optimized the condition of the surface treatment of the pigment and the hardening behavior of the constituent resin in the melting process and succeeded in developing a metallic powder coating for aluminum wheels that fulfills the appearance and the quality requirements of aluminum wheels.
The progress of science and technology has rapidly enriched our lives. On the other hand, we’re facing environmental issues such as global warming, ozone-layer depletion, and air pollution by an abrupt increase in population, mass production of various commodities, large consumption of fossil fuels, and so on.
Therefore, the West and Japan have taken a leading role in advancing the regulation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), the legal controls of Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR), and so on. Accordingly, awareness of these environmental issues is rising day by day. Meanwhile, the automotive industry is a discharge source of various chemical substances. “Measures for environmental issues” are the assignments that companies should address as soon as possible, and addressing them is placed as a big contribution to society. Against this background, the importance of technology in tackling environmental issues, such as with paints used to manufacture automobiles and their parts, is rising.