Automotive News

Automotive Three Stage Paint

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:52:05 +0000

Today’s automotive paint is durable and resistant to stains and has a high gloss. Vehicles of today primarily utilize a two stage paint process know as base coat, clear coat. There are a number of three stage colors that have become popular. The best example is the pearl white that General Motors uses on the Cadillac. When viewed from different angles the paint color appears to change. This is due to the mid coat, which is applied after the base coat and before the clear coat. The mid coat contains pearlescent powders that cover a broad color spectrum. If you look closely, you can see the small flakes of purple, reds, blues and other colors that give the pearl look to the finish. This type of refinishing is also known as” Tri Coat” with some paint manufactures.

This three stage process drove painters crazy when attempting to match colors. Typically, when a fender replacement was needed, blending the color back into the door to achieve a proper color match was required. In preparation for the blending operation all items are removed from the door such as handles, glass, moldings and trim. The base coat or first stage was applied to the fender and partially into the door. The second stage is the application of the clear coat, which is applied in two coats over the fender and complete door.With the addition of another spraying process after the base or first stage, the blending into the door did not produce an acceptable color match. The industry had to come up with a solution to this problem. The answer required a procedure known as zone refinishing.

The same type of damage that previously required blending into the door now includes the preparation and refinishing of additional undamaged panels along the same side as the repairs. Depending on the color and location, it may be necessary to paint the entire side of a vehicle in order to achieve a proper color match. There are also custom colors that appear to change drastically when viewed from different angles. One example is changing from a rust color to a deep purple and the car actually appears to undergo a change of color as it moves towards or away from you. This is due to the addition of special pearls and xirallic effects.

Xirallic effects are aluminum oxide platelets which are then coated with metal oxides. These platelets are manufactured synthetically using a new crystallization process. The cost of this type of additive is expensive compared to typical pearl type applications. The addition of the three stage refinishing process takes considerably more time to complete. In conclusion the three stage refinishing process is here to stay and adds pleasant visual affect to the cars of today.

Changes in the Automotive Industry

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:43:28 +0000

This may be old news to some of you but the automotive industry is not what it used to be. The days of car manufactures making new cars, slapping an expensive price tag on them and then watching happy go lucky customers drive off the lot in large numbers has passed long ago. With the economy being in the worst shape that it has been in in a very long time, people just don’t have money to waist on vehicles the way that they did once upon a time.

In recent months thing have began to stabilize a little more than the last twelve months. In what was being called the automotive crisis many people lost jobs as almost no cars were being sold. Household names Like GM, Ford, and Chrysler all looked to the government for help. A big reason that the crisis took place was because the automotive industry was weakened by a substantial increase in the prices of automotive fuels. With virtually no fuel efficient models to offer consumers the “Big three” of the American automotive industry watched their sales quickly decrease.

While car companies from other parts of the world had been focusing on making cars targeted at fuel efficiency for many years, most American automobile manufacturers were way behind and therefore suffered the largest loss in sales during the global financial downturn. Hope full the mistakes made by these companies served as a lesson in economic to these companies. Sadly, from the looks of the cars that they are still producing they haven’t.

Failure of the Automotive Industry – The Primary Reason

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:01:42 +0000

The US automotive industry suffered a fatal blow. Yet anyone who claims that the industry’s demise can be linked to a single root-cause of failure is sadly mistaken. I spent the greater portion of 10 years within that industry many of which in an executive or managerial role.

Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet that caused the fall. I say unfortunately because a single cause of failure could be prevented in the future. In this case, the blame can be put only on the system as a whole making it difficult to protect against a repeat occurrence.

What the automotive industry suffered was a catastrophic failure caused by multiple points of failure. We’re talking systemic failure in its truest form. As an insider in the industry, I can personally attest to some of the actions (or lack thereof) that pushed the industry to a collapse.

One of the biggest gremlins that undermined the industry was a myopic focus on piece price (cost). Over the years the automobile manufacturers became totally engulfed in driving (no pun intended) suppliers to lower sell prices in an attempt to reduce the production cost of a car or truck and therefore increase the bottom line.

This shortsighted focus on lower piece cost was so strong that supplier relationships were sacrificed. In fact, one of the Big 3 automotive companies believed that if one supplier went under that another would always step up. How is that for arrogant?

The pressure for lower piece cost was so extreme that suppliers were forced to seek low-cost countries for the procurement of parts and for their own manufacturing processes. On the surface this approach may seem logical. However, what was lacking was a holistic view of the situation to see that lower piece price demands were leading to other systemic issues:

Reduced quality and increased life-cycle costs due to overseas outsourcing
Suboptimal designs because of shortcuts to reduce costs
Jobs being pushed out of the US
Collapse of solid, reputable suppliers
Tarnished relationships with the legacy supply base

The situation went as far as the automotive manufacturers demanding payments from suppliers to maintain current business or to be awarded new business. These payments were commonly known in industry as “givebacks”. These givebacks started as checks that were written for absurd amounts of money and then changed into piece price concessions over the length of a given contract (the SEC wouldn’t necessary like the check approach, i.e. buying business).

Business is about more than just the bottom line. The way in which you go about producing profit makes a difference. Our friends in the automotive industry learned the hard way that relying upon myopic, dictatorial and selfishly driven profits at the expense of your suppliers and customers is not sustainable.