Sophie Carpentier, Stellantis sealants technical leader, and Franck Lepetit, PPG product engineer, Automotive OEM Coatings, presented the results of the implementation of PPG CORASEAL® 4-Wet Sealer in Stellantis’s light commercial vehicles production at the Strategies in Car Body Painting conference, hosted by the Automotive Circle. (Photo: Business Wire)
PPG’s new sealer cures in just one step, the company said.
PITTSBURGH—The latest version of a sealer technology from PPG is reported to provide energy savings and emission reduction when used in production of Stellantis’s light commercial vehicles, PPG said in a release.
The PPG CORASEAL® 4-Wet Sealer cures in just one step, versus up to three steps required for traditional technologies. That curing efficiency provides sustainability benefits for automotive OEM paint shops by reducing energy usage and CO2 emissions, the company said.
Automotive OEM paint shops have traditionally used a curing process comprising a sealer oven, primer oven, and topcoat oven. The PPG B1:B2™ process, also known as the 3-Wet system, reduced that to just the sealer oven and topcoat oven. With the latest PPG Coraseal 4-Wet Sealer, only the topcoat oven is required. The system is compatible with most waterborne and solvent-borne systems, according to the release.
“Transitioning to the PPG Coraseal 4-Wet Sealer offers several sustainability and performance benefits to OEMs,” said Thierry Destruhaut, PPG sustainability business partner, Automotive OEM Coatings, in the release. “When compared to the 3-Wet system, it can lead to a reduced environmental impact, reducing energy consumption by nearly 8 percent, cutting CO2 emissions by nearly 5 percent (based on EU average conversion factors), and enhancing productivity. Additionally, the need for fewer curing steps also simplifies maintenance processes and reduces costs.”
The results of the implementation at Stellantis’s LCV plants were presented jointly by Franck Lepetit, PPG product engineer, Automotive OEM Coatings, and Sophie Carpentier, Stellantis sealants technical leader, at the Strategies in Car Body Painting conference, hosted by the Automotive Circle in Berlin in July. The speakers called process “an important contributor to meeting their respective companies’ sustainability targets,” the release said.