Polished
Silver Paint Job - Alubeam
Mercedes-Benz,
together with BASF has developed a new
paint that is called Alubeam. The new
2008 Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG will be
the first one to wear it. Chrome, polished
silver, it's mirror like shine can't
be missed. How do they do it? Well at
$10,000 per paint job, very carefully.
No
robots here, all the painting is done
by trained experts. Each car is painstakingly
coated with extra reduced paint that
contains super-small aluminum flakes.
The flakes in the standard metallic
paint measure from 100 to 300 nanometers
and this special paint has flakes that
measure from 30 to 50 nanometers. It's
like spraying liquid metal.
The
most important task for the painter
is to make sure that all the aluminum
flakes lay down flat so when the light
hits the car's body it will reflect
uniformly creating a mirror like effect.
As shown in the image above, the flakes
in the standard paint end up randomly
bunched up on the car surface which
is why the light gets scattered around
and the paint has a look of brushed
or dull silver color. In this new paint
the flakes lay down flat and reflect
the light evenly. The image I created
above is obviously exaggerated but it
illustrates how this works clearly.
Because
of the amount of reducing required in
the application process this paint is
currently illegal in the United States.
PPG is currently working on creating
a similar paint which is more environmentally
friendly and developing automatic application
solutions.
Mercedes-Benz
BASF
PPG
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