Paint development is increasingly influenced by environmental considerations. Reduction of solvent emissions was a dominating factor in the decision of the automotive industry in Western Europe to introduce waterborne basecoat systems for OEM application.
Waterborne automotive OEM paints were first used at the beginning of the 1970s in some automobile production plants in the western United States because of laws governing solvent emissions. Their properties, however, were not fully adequate in all climatic conditions — especially where water resistance is concerned — as they were one-coat systems. Consequently, in the search for ways of reducing solvent content, this technology was replaced by non-aqueous dispersions (NAD) and later by high-solids NAD technology.