Water Based Auto Paint Gains a Foot Hold in the North American Refinish Market

Word is spreading amongst consumers that water based automobile paint is now being utilised in auto collision repair. Most who do not have intimate information of the North American auto body industry are not familiar with the history of water based auto paint and would logically assume that a technological revolution has occurred recently which finally allowed all auto paint to be made with water. Even so, the reality is that is not completely accurate. Water based or “water-borne” automotive paints have been utilised in the business considering that the early 90s in specific geographical regions such as Southern California. In an attempt to lessen ground level ozone (also identified as SMOG), a side effect of solvent release into the atmosphere, specific air high quality management districts in California passed laws in the early to mid 90s which strongly encouraged the use of water-borne basecoats in automotive collision repair. The industry responded with the initial generation of water-borne basecoats for aftermarket collision repair. This new technologies ranged from quite great in performance to poor depending on the brand and level of support given to new users. At the time the technology was extremely new and largely untested in real world refinishing environments which led to troubles for numerous. Because the industry as a entire was not ready for the technology it was largely rejected amongst refinishers.

Also contributing to the demise of the initial generation of water-borne auto paint was the “exemption” of specific solvents. Shortly after the first generation of water-borne basecoats had been introduced particular solvents that had been proven to be much less detrimental to the environment had been exempted from the calculation of volatile organic content which essentially meant they were treated like water for regulatory purposes. This exemption allowed solvent based chemistries to be formulated for compliance even under the newer low VOC laws. This combined with the early issues of water-borne systems essentially put an end to the commercial application of the first generation of water-borne auto paint.

Nonetheless, there had been many key lessons learned during this early introduction that would make future commercialization less complicated for both North America and Europe. 1 key lesson learned was the require for more advanced equipment to solve the slow drying issues with water-borne paints. Equipment manufacturers responded with a lot of alternatives that featured far better air movement and greater temps from several forms of drying and flashing equipment. Manufacturers also recognized greater training was required for shops to master the new tactics associated with water-borne basecoat use. These lessons had been put to excellent use by manufacturers who had been selling material in Europe as the European Union mandated the use of water-borne coatings in the early 2000s. The preparation and launch of water-borne auto paints in Europe was an exceptional proving ground for numerous aspects of water-borne auto paints and when the use of low VOC automotive basecoats where mandated in 2007 by parts of California then industry was ready a lot much better than the previous attempts in the 90s. This has resulted in water-borne basecoat becoming received by a lot of the industry with open arms as much more and more shops adopt the technology. Several shops outside of the VOC regulated areas haven even switched to water-borne basecoats as they see an chance to marketplace their shop as “utilizing environmentally friendly water based paint”. The mandated use of water-borne auto paint appears to be on the rise with Canada now having adopted a law very similar to those enacted in California and now a group of states in the North Eastern United States taking into consideration adopting the law to aid boost air quality in their states. In short, the future looks bright for the use of water-borne auto paints in North America and beyond.