Paintbox: Development of Printable Direct-gloss Paint Material

Paintbox is a specialist Tier 1 painting provider to UK based Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Paintbox's clients include the likes of Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, and McLaren as well as Hitachi and Alstom in the rail sector. They are currently advancing a proprietary inkjet system, capable of 'printing' paint onto components in the automotive industry. This would enable 100% transfer efficiency of paint onto parts, eliminating overspray and the significant quantities of associated waste and emissions excess overspray produces. The process also removes various energy intensive curing steps, to drive further environmental and cost efficiencies.

This project is a Feasibility Study whose focus is materials (paint) compatibility, specifically looking at highly-viscous materials. The Paintbox team will be understanding the constraints in developing, testing and designing baseline recipes for printable paints. The paints must be printable and compatible with a variety of substrates (e.g. composites, aluminium and various thermoplastics) and meet OEM performance capability standards to ensure coating longevity. The project will inform system constraints and follow-on R&D required to ensure materials compatibility and scale-up.