"We are proud to have launched this exciting process as a first in the United States," said Bob White, director, global accounts at BMW. "Our waterborne B1:B2 technology highlights our dedication to helping our customers reduce the overall paint shop footprint and environmental impact, while achieving superior appearance and maintaining color flexibility."
First off, to properly understand the innovative side of this new process, let’s take a glimpse on how a traditional automotive paint process looks like: the application of pretreatment and electrocoat is followed by a primer layer; after the primer layer is cured, a topcoat layer of basecoat and clearcoat is applied and cured. This makes the classic process both costly and time-consuming.
In opposition with the traditional process, the next generation B1:B2 technology allows the customer to reduce the number of steps necessary to paint a vehicle. According to PPG, this is accomplished by moving the traditional primer application into the topcoat booth.
Both the B1 and B2 layers are applied wet-on-wet and do not require a baking or a heated dehydration process in between, which results in reducing the overall energy usage and paint shop footprint.
“Compact paint processes like the B1:B2 process from PPG generate substantial savings in capital and operating costs for OEMs by reducing the manufacturing footprint of a paint shop, lowering energy consumption and increasing overall process efficiency,” PPG brags in a statement.
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