New Generation Nanocoatings for Automotive Interiors (NEWNANO)

The main objective of the project is to overcome technological challenges to take to market new generation coatings for the automotive industry with improved properties and enhanced performance. To be able to achieve this, it is proposed to undertake this collaborative project to develop a process that can be employed to produce coatings with functional nanoparticles in their formulation in quantities beyond lab scale and pave the way for industrial scale manufacture and commercialisation. Such new formulation coatings will be used to enhance surface properties such as hardness, abrasion resistance and anti-fingerprinting whilst maintaining desirable optical properties such as clarity and colour. A significant enhancement beyond the state-of-the art of coating hardness has been achieved in initial trials from new formulations prepared at bench scale, whilst maintaining the ability of the coating to be processed into 3D shapes by vacuum forming. Current industrial need to develop new technologies to produce these in larger quantities whilst maintaining their superior performance remains to be the challenge to address in this project. Success in this project will enable the introduction of new scratch resistant and easy clean coatings into automotive interiors. This will put MA at a competitive edge increasing its market share in the sector by an estimated x10, its production based in the UK by 25% and thereby employment opportunities.