togwt
The Old Grey Whistle Test
Robot Auto Painting
b) Polishing or Waxing Production (OEM oven cured) Paintwork
Original equipment materials (OEM) specified materials are very different from refinish paint products and materials
One of the most often asked question and a subject that results in a great deal of confusion regarding polishing or waxing OEM paint,
“How soon can I wax my new vehicle�?
Once you brought a new vehicle and to find out how long ago your vehicle was painted; check the driver's side door jamb, a sticker should give the month and year the vehicle left the plant. Paint curing process; new cars go through the painting and baking process without any of the rubber, plastic, and cloth components installed. This is why they can expose the cars paint to such high temperatures, these high temperatures and special paints used at the factory level ensure the paint is fully cured by the time the car leaves the assembly line.
Water-based (waterborne) paint systems (E-Coat, surface primers and colour/base coat) the basic carrier solvent for the pigment resin system, (former and binder) of the base coats, the clear coat provides the necessary paint protection as well as providing depth to the colour coat. Ultra violet (UV) is dispersed throughout the paint system (with the exception of CeramiClear, which due to the specific gravity of the chemical used it resides in the top µ of the clear coat)
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) - the vehicle body is sprayed by programmable robots fitted with instrumentation on the vehicle to measure paint coverage, thickness and etc, it’s then cured at high temperatures in a paint oven at around 320. °F (160. °C) for 20 minutes, in multiple oven zones where the paint is baked with radiation and convection heat, or infrared so that 90-95% of the paint systems out gassing has taken place, the additional 5-10% will cure within 2-3 days. Once the vehicle body has been painted it is taken to the assembly line where wheels, upholstery, trim and etc are fitted. After the assembly is completed it will probably be stored for one or two days before transportation, it is then shipped or transported OTR or via rail to a dealership and most likely parked on the lot for a few weeks or more. OEM paint although it’s out gassed, dried and is fully cross-linked; this is no guarantee that it may not exhibit some ‘softness’, as paint continues to become denser (hardens) with time.So OEM s paint can be waxed as soon as you take delivery. Check the door jamb sticker and it will tell you the month and year the car was assembled / painted, most vehicles are anywhere from two weeks to six months before customer delivery.
By not applying some sort of paint protection soon after purchase the customer is actually damaging the paint surface instead of helping it. Salesmen that advise a customer not to wax a car for 3-6 months are relying on old paint methods and are misinformed about the latest paint technology.
Twenty years ago this was correct; you should not to wax a new car with these paint systems. However, that was 20 years ago and no longer applies with today’s base-coat/clear-coat paint systems.
This is a huge problem in dealerships because customers tend to take the advice offered by a salesman who usually knows nothing about paint, rather than a trained paint professional. This goes a long way to understand why fairly new vehicles paint surfaces are in such bad shape even after a relatively short period of time.
Twenty or so years ago, cars were typically painted with lacquer or enamel single stage paints, which contained a large volume of solvents that needed to evaporate (outgas) before the paint would fully dry. These paint systems dried from the outside in. If wax was applied to the paint surface before it was fully dried, there could be problems, like solvent pop, which occurs from solvents pushing up through the paint, giving the paint a crater-like appearance.
The paint could also have “died back� or faded because of the trapped solvents clouding the paint. Also, solvents that did not outgas would leave the paint softer and more susceptible to scratches and blemishes.
