The Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) and automotive.saarland are presenting decorative, glass-like coatings for corrosion and wear protection of automotive parts at the IAA International Motor Show 2015.
Car enthusiasts often have a wide range of requirements in for vehicles, including powerful engines, vehicle safety, advanced technology, and a pleasurable driving experience. In order to create a striking impression, they often also add decorative accessories, such as coloured bodywork, footboards, engine components, exhausts, brake calipers, and wheel rims. Such decorative coatings would ideally offer wear and corrosion protection.
The coatings developed by INM possess glass-ceramic and glassy properties, which help reduce the degree of wear and corrosion that can take place, the tendency to scratching or tarnishing, and any other form of surface oxidation.
INM’s method of coating also allows a choice of color based on the pigments used. The range of colors include red, blue, green, black, and white. They are stable at high temperatures, and can be used in glassy components as a layer for protection, and also for aluminium, alloy and steel metallic substrates.
“In addition to the properties which have been mentioned, our production method also opens up other possibilities,” says Peter William de Oliveira, head of the Optical Materials program division. The other possibilities may include electrical insulation due to vitreousness, layer flexibility, and non-stick properties.
Special silicates are used in the INM coating method. In a reaction that takes place in a single-step, these silicates get converted into a sol-gel nanocomposite. The substrate material and the colour pigment selected determine the hermetical sealing of the surfaces at temperatures ranging from 200°C to 800°C.
The coating layers have a thickness of between 2 and 10 µm. When the coating is done in spray booths or immersion chambers, even flat and curved surfaces can be effectively and easily coated.