Painting of plastic automotive parts and panels

In recent years, a major object of coating has been to enhance the aesthetic appearance of cars and thereby improve their customer appeal and marketability. Another recent trend has been the expanded use of plastic parts and components to achieve weight reduction, styling improvements and enhanced customer appeal. These moves toward aesthetic improvements and increased use of plastic parts have combined to make the painting of plastic parts a very important technology for the motor manufacturing industry. This paper describes the viewpoints of a painting engineer working for a Japanese motor manufacturer, as follows: (1) Recent trends in plastic automotive parts. (2) Evolution of painting techniques for plastic automotive parts. (3) Painting characteristics of plastics parts. (4) Current state of painted plastic parts (radiator grille, bumper and fascia, aerodynamic parts, etc.). (5) Future trends (development of paints curable at low temperature, integrated painting of motor car body and plastic parts).