New concepts for plastic exterior body panels

Hybrid materials and modularit sum up the trend in modern vehicle body design. Since individual parts and modules are likely to be sourced from a variety of suppliers, colour matching is likely to be a growing problem. The ollowing article presents a possible solution developed by BASF. It consists of a coated or pigmented plastic film that not only guarantees a perfect colour match but also eliminates the use of conventional spray coating of vehicle bodies. © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2002.