That gleaming silver or sparkling green color on your car may not come via paint in a few years if General Electric (GE) has its way. The company has developed a 0.5-millimeter polymer layer called Sollx(TM) that coats molded plastic parts, imparting a variety of colors that shine like newly painted metal. And Sollx's most promising target market is the automotive industry, where paint is the single biggest manufacturing expense.

"Everybody's goal is to get rid of the paint shop," says Subi Dinda, a plastics expert at DaimlerChrysler, which is already trying the new chemical film on components such as mirror housings, doors and fenders. Costing up to $400 million each, automated paint facilities of car factories are usually responsible for more than a third of the entire factory's cost.

In comparison, covering surfaces with Sollx promises to be cost-effective. Automakers can coat parts with Sollx using existing manufacturing facilities, eliminating the need to invest in new paint lines. On top of slashing paint shop costs, the polymer can also help decrease the assembly time and tooling costs of automotive components.

And aside from producing affordable molded-in color parts, the new film can also endure inclement conditions. Sollx has been able to retain its gloss through tests emulating the rigors of the road and about 10 to 15 years of outdoor weathering. The film reacts to the sun's ultraviolet rays by producing a protective outer coating that won't corrode. In fact, it literally and figuratively outshines paint, besting it in chemical and scratch resistance.

The new film's first commercial appearance was on Segway's $5,000 scooters, which have Sollx-covered two-tone plastic fenders atop their wheels. GE Plastics is also targeting golf carts, jet skis and outdoor equipment, though its most lucrative market remains the automotive industry, where the film will start off by providing the finish for small plastic components and then make a bid for paint's position as the outer coating on car bodies.

But before this can happen, car bodies have to be made of plastic not galvanized steel, which is currently the material of choice. At least three times the price of the galvanized steel used in cars, plastic has to get cheaper before Sollx can widen its market reach beyond small car parts and vehicles with small production runs.

Fortunately, many car designers have long embraced plastic, endeavoring for years to get more of the material into cars because it lowers vehicle weight and affords them much more design freedom. It's also easier to shape than metal.

And car designers will certainly champion plastic even more because of Sollx and its ability to impart a Class A, deep gloss finish. Moreover, the film allows colored insignias and logos to be chemically printed for customization. According to GE Plastics, Sollx is even theoretically capable of thermochromic effects, changing color with temperature shifts. This means that your car could sport a dark shade in winter and a lighter color in summer. And the cost is comparable to that of painted plastic.

All of Sollx's benefits over paint will help plastic's cause. "Take out the costs associated with painting a vehicle, and a plastic vehicle becomes economically more appealing," says Venkatakrishnan Umamaheswaran, GE market development manager of automotive exterior body programs. "Automakers can now consider assembling a vehicle with body panels made from Sollx film in a facility that costs half that of a conventional factory."

Although automobiles are, by and large, steel masses that need paint, plastic has claimed some victories over metal. It's now used in the New Beetle's fenders, the Saturn's doors, and exclusively in the body panels on DaimlerChrysler's European smart cars.

Sollx can also capitalize on the environmental drawbacks of painting steel vehicles. When automobile bodies are painted, several coats have to be applied—such as the initial electrocoat, the primer, the color coat and the clear coat—and that entails the use of copious amounts of solvents, which make their way into the atmosphere. These evaporating solvents, called volatile organic compounds or VOCs, represent the biggest single source of air pollution at car manufacturing plants.

What's more, painting automobiles consumes large amounts of energy—another environmental no-no. Lots of energy is used not only in the production of solvents but also by the fans and drying ovens of automated paint facilities, where the vehicles' high-gloss finish is baked on.

And while solutions like water-based automotive paints with lower solvent content are being developed, Sollx provides an attractive solution that could banish paint from automobiles entirely. GE is certainly confident about the polymer's potential. "GE Plastics believes this new polymer technology has a very bright future in automotive as well as any other market where plastic sees substantial outdoor exposure," says Umamaheswaran.

The company is currently imitating the unique imperfections of paint, so a Sollx-covered fender will blend right in with the painted metal body that it's attached to. Says Margaret Blohm, a research scientist at GE who led Sollx's development, "We could look better than paint. But right now, we have to look like paint."

Sources: A Glint in Detroit's Eyes
Erick Schonfeld
Business 2.0, Feb. 2003
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,46142,00.html

A New Way to Paint Cars
Edward Willett
Edward Willett's Intergalactic Library; Science Columns, Feb. 28, 2003
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/autopaint.htm

GE Plastics' Sollx(TM) Film Available for Sampling in Automotive Exterior Trim & Body Panels
GE Plastics Press Release, June 25, 2002
http://www.geplastics.com/press_pack/02_06_25d.html