PAINT ON PLASTICS (POP): Painting automotive plastic substrates such as bumpers, trim, door handles and mirror housing requires a different paint from the type of paint used on automotive metal body parts. NBCi is the leader in the North American plastic automotive coatings market.

LIQUID PAINT (LQ): Liquid coatings are applied to the metal automobile body to seal and protect the metal while granting it a shiny, uniform look. Using unique technology developed by Nippon Paint, NPAC provides a full line of OEM automotive coatings including pretreatment, electrocoat, primer surfacer, basecoat, and clearcoat.

RAW MATERIALS (RM) for PAINTS AND COATINGS: NP-USA®, through its trading division, NPA, a C-TPAT partner, supplies many of the key raw material components used in automotive paint production including unique products like microgel, microscopic particles of styrene (meta-) acrylic esters. These microscopic organic particles are only a few tens of nanometers across, and both the internal and surface properties can be controlled to suit a wide range of uses.

Pretreatment - Our popular surface treatment chemicals are superb for cleaning the body of contaminants, degreasing metal and plastics, surface conditioning and phosphating. The chemicals can be applied on aluminum, iron and steel, copper and plastic by spraying or immersion.

Electrocoat - also called "E-Coat" provides the automobile protection against diverse climatic conditions. This electrodeposition system acts as an anti-rust primer, and also works effectively as an anti-corrosion agent.

Primer Surfacer - the surfacer gives the automobile surface anti-corrosion properties and good inter-coat adhesion. This layer enhances the automobile's finish by bringing out the smoothness, brightness and gloss of its colors.

Basecoat - also called "Topcoat", is the color you see on the vehicles which helps transform the car into a thing of true beauty. Our topcoats come in a range of different resin-based finishes comprising polyester, melamine, acrylic and alkyd melamine.

Clearcoat - is the clear layer of paint over the pigmented paint layer (basecoat) which protects the paint under it and helps to resist fading of the colored paint.

Why use Waterborne Paint?

Today a large percentage of vehicles are painted with at least some layers of waterborne paint. Liquid coatings use solvents to suspend paint pigments. As these solvents evaporate, dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted into the air. Waterborne paint uses water to suspend paint pigments, reducing emissions of VOCs and thus making these coatings more environmentally friendly.

How are new paint colors determined?

The Nippon Paint Color Design Center ("CDC") (www.nipponpaint.co.jp/design_e), located in Tokyo proposes color plans in line with the development goals of each automobile manufacturer. Colors are created for the next generation of automobiles after reviewing and studying the preference trends of consumers, the fashion industry and interior design. Nippon Paint then seeks to reproduce the design image of coating film on the body of a real automobile.