Ferrari: The Italian Automaker Revolutionises the Car Painting Process with a Low Cure Clear Coat System

Ferrari: The Italian Automaker Revolutionises the Car Painting Process with a Low Cure Clear Coat System

Alessia Venturi ipcm ®

Portofino is a delightful village set

in the Italian Riviera that recalls elegance, sportiness, and discreet luxury. Ferrari dedicated its last marvel to this town: Ferrari Portofino, the new Gran Turismo V8, an exceptionally versatile open

model (ref. Opening photo). With its 600 HP and accelerations from 0 to 200 km/h in just 10.8 seconds, the Ferrari Portofino is the most powerful convertible to offer at the same time a retractable hardtop, a large trunk, and a spacious interior also featuring

two rear seats that can be used for short distances. Even the launch colour of the new Ferrari is called Rosso Portofino. It is a deep red with black shades, obtained with the application of a two-component low cure pigmented

clear coat. The use of low cure clear coats is a historic turning point for the automotive sector and Ferrari, as a company of technological excellence in the world, is its absolute protagonist. The possibility of polymerising a coating system at temperatures suitable also for heat-sensitive substrates, such as carbon fibre, enables to follow at an industrial level the multi-material trend of the car sector, with excellent finishing results and the elimination of any colour matching issues in the assembly of components treated on different coating lines. Lower polymerisation temperatures also ensure a significant reduction in the energy consumption of the most energy-intensive phase of a car production process. This is a further point of pride for Ferrari, equipped with a trigeneration system

making it energetically self-sufficient since 2010 and allowing a reduction of over 30% of CO2 emissions.

The switch to a low cure system involved a project that lasted eighteen months and was presented for the first time (still in its initial phase) at the Surcar conference in Cannes in June 2017. It required an important investment also in terms of plant engineering to adapt the application elements to the new two-component resin, developed by PPG and also available in matt and pigmented versions. Ferrari chose Verind as its technological partner, a company of the German group Dürr specialising in industrial and automotive application technologies. The investment involved the replacement of two spraying robots applying the clear coat on the exteriors of cars (Fig. 1), the

Figure 1: The two new EcoRP L133 robots spraying the clear coat on the exterior of a car.

implementation of last generation high rotation 2K electrostatic bells, the integration of the manual spraying stations devoted to the car interiors with digital mixing machines and the Coriolis technology, and the addition of three new EcoSupply P systems, two to manage the matt and pigmented clear coats while one was added for the base coats.

A pioneer for over 70 years Established in 1947, Ferrari has always produced cars in its current headquarters of Maranello, keeping faith with its vocation over the years. The firm has grown progressively thanks to a large-scale plan and a far-sighted vision in terms of both design and quality. Ferrari exports about 95% of its production and it is present in more than 60 markets, after having officially landed on the Indian market in 2011 and on the Israeli one in 2012.

Figure 2: A Ferrari body at the entrance of the cataphoresis line.

Ferrari stands out from any other sports car company for the use of aluminium as the only Body-In-White construction material since 1999 (Fig. 2). For its cars, twelve different aluminium alloys in the form of extrusions, sheets, and castings are used. Carrozzeria Scaglietti, which builds the chassis, has become a centre of excellence in the field of aluminium processing. There is a trend towards increasingly extreme performance levels and, for Ferrari, innovation entails continuous research on materials. The multi-material approach calls for the use of innovative and lightweight materials, such as carbon (Fig. 3) and composites, for functional and decorative elements. “Besides their aluminium body-in-white, all Ferrari vehicles can have carbon bumpers and sills; the new Ferrari 488 Pista will

also feature carbon bonnets and rear wings,” explains Luigi Franzese (Fig. 4), the Production Processes Direction’s Technology Coating Area Manager. “This characterises our production and differentiates us from other manufacturers, but also determines our innovation choices in terms of coating: Ferrari is the first industrial automotive group in the world to paint at low temperatures. The project kicked off on April 16, after eighteen months of research and industrialisation phases. Now, we are using a coating system that used to be the prerogative of small body shops,” states Franzese. “This is a very important innovation because it greatly improves performance and aesthetics even on the so-called “evolved” materials and with a much lower environmental impact per vehicle.”

Figure 3: A detail of a carbon-look effect carbon component on a Ferrari vehicle.

Figure 4: Luigi Franzese next to a body with about 10,000 signatures of Ferrari employees and their families, collected during the last corporate Family Day.

“The ecological aspect of the coating process was another driver of development. Ferrari is a company with a very strong green conscience: for example, we are the first self-sufficient European automotive company in terms of electricity, heating, and cooling,” says Franzese. “Our coating system already had a low VOC content thanks to the use of a powder primer and water-based base coats: now, the addition of a low cure clear coat enables us to further reduce the carbon footprint of our production.”

The coating cycle: an industrial process with artisan quality Ferrari’s chassis take a long journey in the coating department, between meticulous quality controls and manual customisation operations. As in most of automotive plants, Ferrari’s paintshop (Fig. 5) is structured on various levels to separate “dirty” and “clean” processes. “We receive the assembled body from Carrozzeria Scaglietti,” says Luigi Franzese. “After a first check, it is loaded in the raw material warehouse, it is assigned a colour, and it finally reaches our paintshop. The department consists of Floor 0, housing the inspection and sealing phases, Floor 1, featuring the cataphoresis line, the spray paint booths, the oven, and the polishing and final control stations, and the Technical Floor, with utilities. “The cycle begins with the chemicalphysical pickling of the body. For cataphoresis, we have implemented a process tailored to our specific construction needs, i.e. with cars fully built in aluminium, and ours is one of the first plants installed by Dürr with a RoDip immersion and body rotation system. After curing, the body reaches a storage buffer and then the inspection area (Fig. 6). Here, any small cataphoresis impurities are eliminated and the body is equipped with the various accessories and protections needed for the subsequent processing stages. The following phase is

Figure 5: The entrance of the Ferrari paintshop.

Figure 6: The cataphoresis inspection area.

the manual sealing of the lower part of the vehicle; most of our processes are manual because we want to preserve the artisan quality of a product that has made us famous in the world. Then, the body is sent to Floor 1 to enter the powder primer application booth: the application is manual on the interiors and robotic on the exteriors, with two opposing robots. After curing at 180°C, the car goes back to Floor 0, where the operators check the primer layer and the body is cleaned before reaching a storage buffer in front of the base coat application booth”. “This booth features a manual cleaning workstation to treat some areas of the

body, followed by a blow off system and a dust removal station with emu feathers,” says Franzese. “This double cleaning process is necessary due to the complexity of our cars’ profiles: a simple manual operation would not be sufficient to ensure a high finishing quality. The base coat application booth includes a first inspection workstation followed by a manual application operation on the interiors (Fig. 7) and a robotic one on the exteriors, both with pneumatic guns (Fig. 8). After visual inspection, the body quickly passes in a flash off area at 80 °C. Finally, it enters the

clear coat application booth where the same process is repeated (Fig. 9) and concluded with a 50 minutes long polymerisation stage (Fig. 10) at 90°C.”

At this point, the coated bodies continue their journey through various phases of inspection, control, polishing, and above all finish customisation. “After the ICP (Initial Customer Perception) aesthetic check and polishing stations, the vehicles can follow three different routes,” explains Franzese. “They can be approved and stored, continue towards a further polishing station in case a more accurate intervention, not compatible with normal line speeds, is necessary, or undergo

special treatments, e.g. application of three-layer colours, under-coats, two-colour finishes, and so on. In the standard route, on the other hand, the body reaches the masking stations before the application of aesthetic black layers and hot melt coatings. After curing, the protections are removed and the cars are controlled and approved. All of the vehicles produced undergo a 30-minute quality audit. Once any surface defects have been eliminated, the vehicles are checked again for 20 minutes and then proceed to the final approval stage.”

For Ferrari, colour is very important. “Ferrari does not add a new colour by eliminating an old one,” Franzese goes on. “Collectors, loyal customers and, in general, anyone who wants to buy a Ferrari car must be able to choose from our entire historical colour range. That is why we now handle about 80 tints (Fig. 11), including 14 different red ones.” The brand new Rosso Portofino is among them. “Rosso Portofino is obtained thanks to the application of a glossy pigmented resin, which ensures the same depth and chromaticity of a three-layer system without any complex production phase required to apply a double base coat. Indeed, Ferrari only handles two very low absorption three-layer colours, applied on the customisation line.” Rosso Portofino is a peculiar finish obtained with a special metallic base coat and a pigmented clear coat containing patented PPG nanopigments called ANDARO ® . The final effect that is perceived results from the particular combination of these two elements (metallic

base coat + pigmented clear coat with ANDARO ® pigments), developed through an accurate stylistic research study conducted by PPG specifically for Ferrari to blend sportiness and elegance. The metallic base coat was conceived to give the colour a significant effect of sparkling (aluminium reflecting light) and flop (difference in gloss perceived from different angles). The pigmented clear coat was formulated using ANDARO ® pigments, giving the colour greater saturation and chromatic “cleanliness”, high transparency (lens effect), and a “fluid” depth that ensures a three-dimensional “lacquered” effect that could not be obtained with the conventional technology.

Features of the new investment The main driver of the switch to the 2K clear coat was Ferrari’s need to work with increasingly particular and evolved construction materials. This system enables to paint and polymerise substrates of different nature together, since it is compatible with a wide variety of materials, including heat-sensitive ones. It therefore reduces operational complexity and simplifies the achievement of chromatic harmony among the various parts of a car. In the near future, the evolution of the low-cure technology will allow to coat metal and plastic parts inline, further favouring the use of lightweight components.

Figure 7: A detail of the manual base coat application on the interior of a car.

Figure 8: The automatic base coat application on the exterior of a car.

Figure 9: A detail of the manual application of the clear coat on car interiors.

“In this innovation journey, we received tremendous support from PPG, which developed our new low cure clear coats in their glossy, matt, and pigmented versions. In fact, we soon realised that this change was not possible with the one-component technology, so PPG immediately formulated a two-component system. The change in the chemical nature of the clear coat required

the modification and approval of all base coats – a process that in some cases was really challenging. Ferrari currently uses new generation water-based base coats with a rapid polymerisation reaction, high moisture resistance and hydrophobicity, and better film cross-linking to generate a stronger layer. The development of low cure temp 2K

clear coats was made possible by the PPG laboratories, which created a new resinhardener combination aimed at ensuring higher quality aesthetics, improved chemical and mechanical resistance performance, and surface properties offering better polishing and scratch resistance performance. Thanks to the development of this highly sustainable technology in terms of energy

Figure 10: A coated body in the polymerisation oven.

generation electric pump Dürr HPE400 (Fig. 12). We also equipped the already existing base coat management unit with an electric pump and expanded the EcoSupply P system with a third colour (Fig. 13), in order to give Ferrari greater flexibility in the management of special tints. At the same time, we integrated two EcoSupply P systems for the management of matt and coloured clear coats,” state Verind’s APT Auto Director Alessandro Molè and Technical and Operation Director Paolo Roncarati (Fig. 14). “As for the clear coat application booths, the main change was the replacement of the two existing robots with two new generation robots EcoRP L133, equipped with EcoBell3 2K rotating bells (Fig. 15) featuring integrated mixers.

reduction, Ferrari can coat in-house materials such as carbon. “The real innovation was the implementation of such a cutting edge coating system, but the investment heavily involved its application aspects,” states Franzese. “Together with Verind, besides developing the coating management unit needed to handle two-component products, we chose to increase the number of the existing PIG systems. Moreover, we upgraded the clear coat application robotic devices, dating back to 2005, with new generation robots and electrostatic bells.”

“Starting from the coating management unit, with the switch to the 2K system we added an extra unit for the management of catalysts equipped with a last

Figure 11: The application of the clear coat on a blue car.

Figure 12: The coating management unit with the new electric pumps Dürr HPE400.

We then modified the manual clear coat spraying stations to adapt them to the new 2K system: four machines EcoDose 2K were installed (Fig. 16), two on each side: while one is operating, the other is in standby mode to enable a quick product change operation.”

Technology has supported the revolutionary idea of coating metal and polymers together, transferring a typically artisan process to an industrial production plant. “The carbon parts of the car are assembled to the aluminium body after the base coat inspection,” says Franzese. “The improvement of the colour matching function and the operational simplification were incredible and solved a long-standing coating issue: combining materials with completely different heat resistances while maintaining the same aesthetic and functional performance level.”

Figure 13: The three systems PIG EcoSupply P for the management of the base coats.

Figure 14: From left to right, Alessia Venturi (ipcm ® ) with Alessandro Molè and Paolo Roncarati from Verind.

Figure 15: The two new robots EcoRP L133 equipped with EcoBell3 2K electrostatic bells for spraying the new low cure 2K clear coats.

Ferrari: where unique products are already a reality Ferrari currently offers three ranges of cars to the market: cars in production, track cars, and limited series. Additionally, the company offers three levels of customisation (Fig. 17): Opt, i.e. millions of option combinations; Atelier, i.e. each customer can bring their own customised specifications; and Tailor-Made, i.e. the service that allows the customer to enter the factory and choose any detail with the help of a designer, starting from an approved chassis in production. “Ferrari has a laboratory only devoted to testing the materials required for customised products,” says Franzese. “We take pride in our One Off project, enabling customers to design their own unique and exclusive car based on an existing chassis. One Off is everyone’s dream: a product that is unique in the world but can be homologated worldwide.”

Figure 16: Two of the four EcoDose 2K mixers installed on the manual spraying stations applying the clear coat on the interiors of cars.

Figure 17: The different interior finishes available are among the car customisation options offered. In this picture, a component with a red carbon-look finish.