http://www.azocleantech.com/Details.asp?newsID=5901



"Mazda Motor Corporation today announced the successful launch of the newly developed Aqua-tech Paint System for vehicle body painting at its Ujina Plant No.1 in Japan. The innovative new technology achieves the world’s highest standards for limiting emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) contained in paint as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) gas generated from the energy consumed during the vehicle painting process.

The Aqua-tech Paint System maintains the same world-class low CO2 emissions volume as the Three Layer Wet Paint System — Mazda’s paint system currently installed at all of its production facilities in Japan — and reduces VOC emissions by a further 57 percent. At only 15 grams per square meter of vehicle body surface, the extremely low VOC emissions volume makes Aqua-tech the least polluting water-based paint system in the world. The new system also delivers improved paint quality.

Water-based paints tend to produce far lower VOC emissions than solvent-based paints due to their low VOC content. However, drying water-based paint consumes much more energy because the water must be evaporated through a baking process. The large amounts of carbon dioxide produced during this process have long been an issue associated with water-based paint systems. Mazda has solved this problem with the introduction of this new, innovative coating technology.

The Aqua-tech technology includes the introduction of an improved paint shop air conditioning system and a new, highly efficient evaporation system that removes the water contained in the paint. In addition, Mazda has managed to consolidate the coating processes by developing highly functional top coat paints that exhibit the same brightness and resistance to chipping as conventional primer paint. As a result of these technical breakthroughs, Mazda has established a new vehicle coating technology that achieves extremely low VOC emissions without increasing CO2 volume.

Going forward, Mazda will continue to advance new technologies based on its long-term vision for technology development, Sustainable Zoom-Zoom. With cutting-edge production facilities that include the paint shop with the smallest environmental impact in the world, Mazda is committed to producing vehicles that offer driving pleasure in harmony with environmental and safety features.

The Ujina Plant No.1, one of Mazda’s main vehicle manufacturing facilities, is located near Mazda’s headquarters in Hiroshima."


The RX-8, MX-5, Mazda 2, CX-7-9 are Assembled at the Ujina Plant (Hiroshima)
Mazda 3 and 6 at their Hofu Plant, which I guess will get this newer paint system.

 

Would have been nicer to have got this more chip-resistant paint in 07... Oh well can't have everything. Also, I wonder if this means less orange-peel in the paint.

Good job Mazda!

 

hah beat me by 45 mins ash- i was reading tech stuff and just got to reading car stuff and found this

 

What can I say!!!

 

how about they give us paint that isn't so soft.

 

its not chip resistant. read it again

 

They should take similar steps towards new paints like Nissan with their self healing paint.

 

Hope it is an improvement over their current paint in terms of durability even though it has higher environmental friendliness.

 

Yeah, Mazda was experimenting with self repairing paint and panels after "minor accidents" some 20 years ago, don't know what ever happened to the technology, probably no money in it for them.