DuPont Co. Unveils 'Tricoat' White-Pearl Automotive Finish System
WILMINGTON, DE - DuPont Co. unveiled a white-pearl automotive coating system that the company says allows the finish to be applied in three layers without an intermediate bake step. A Volvo S80 finished with the waterborne coating system was recently displayed at the 2002 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Willy Dutt, a DuPont chemist who led a joint development project with Volvo in Europe, said a white-pearl waterborne coating system of the type introduced by DuPont traditionally requires an intermediate bake of the initial white ground coat. The pearl layer then would be applied in a wet-on-wet process with the clearcoat. The DuPont "tricoat" system allows a wet-on-wet-on-wet process, with all three layers applied in a single pass through the spray booth.