Toyota invents new way to paint with 95% efficiency
 

Japanese automaker has turned to an innovative new paint atomizer as another way to reduce CO2 emissions. The airless paint atomizer makes use of static electricity instead of air and, as a result, achieves a coating efficiency of 95 percent instead of the usual 60-70 percent.
What exactly is coating efficiency? It applies to the volume of paint sprayed relative to the amount of paint that ends up sticking to the vehicle's body. With a loss of only five percent from spraying to adhesion, Toyota claims that the new technique achieves the highest coating efficiency in the world.


Using the new painting process will reduce the Toyota Group's CO2 emissions by approximately seven percent, no mean feat for one of the largest automobile manufacturers globally. Unlike conventional air paint atomizers using aerodynamic force - a process that causes paint particles to ricochet off of the surface it is applied to - Toyota's new process sees statically charged particles gravitating to the surface (the vehicle body). In this way, far fewer atomized particles are scattered, so wastage is dramatically reduced.
The diagram below shows the tip of the airless paint atomizer. Cylindrical in shape, the tip has 600 grooves and, upon rotation, the paint flows through the grooves. Using static electricity, the paint is atomized.

Very cool. I wonder if it helps with orange peel, seems like it could.

I think it would too since orange peel is essentially a bit of over application.

Pretty neat, sort of like powder coating, but WAY more efficient lol.

Can't the powder coating over spray be recycled by scooping it up and spraying it again, making it 100% efficient?

I mean you technically could if you were spraying in a clean room, or had a super clean floor or something to catch the extra powder on. I wouldn't want any bit of dust or dirt particles in my powder.

I'd assume automotive manufacturers would be spraying in a dust free space, anyway.
Besides, it was a theoretical comment/question.

Hmmm... i though a lot of manufacturers did this already? At least I think I recall seeing these electro static painters on a bunch of episodes of that ultimate factory car building show.

Yet, Toyota can't figure out how to produce a proper Infotainment system and can't figure out how to add Android Auto into pre 2020 Entune 3.0 head units. SMH.

Or a proper remote start where the car does not shut off when you open the door.

Haha, really? There's no workaround for that?

None that I know of

The shift to environmentally friendly paints has led to a plague of orange peel on vehicles regardless of brand or price. Hopefully this technology could help rectify this issue.

Is this really new? Hammonds new show Big, showed an identical process for painting at VW plant using static electricity.

Isn't this the general idea behind powdercoating?

This is a pretty standard process in current manufacturing plants.

Our facilities have been doing this longer than I've been here (>8 years), changed to water based paint about 6~7 years ago for environmental reasons as you mentioned

Mazda has been doing this for ages. The end result is a much thinner (weaker) coat

you guys that are whining about orange peel, go buy a Bentley or RR. You will ALWAYS have orange peel.

Not nearly as bad with older oil based paint.

Anyone can color sand too, it just obviously adds expense, which explains why Bentley and Rolls are some of the few doing it. But Lexus and Mercedes can manage to paint a car with a fraction of the orange peel of BMW.

I thought that was for anti-theft reasons.

I will say having owned numerous Audis and BMWs... BMW paint is really bad... not only does it chip like crazy, it does show orange peel far more than others.

Static electricity in paint processes is not new, rather it has been around for quite some time, maybe as long as 20 years.

Automotive exterior “Class A surface” paint is not powder, it is liquid.

Good move by Toyota to improve operational effectiveness. The actions are not new or novel.