Coatings Partner e-journal from BASF: Car of the future		03/25/2010

Hyundai i-flow gleams with a Liquid Metal finish and highly scratch-resistant clearcoat

Muenster. What does the car of the future look like?At the Geneva Motor Show, Hyundai and BASF presented the groundbreaking Hyundai i-flow, which is equipped with all kinds of innovations developed by The Chemical Company.The i-flow concept study and cooperation between BASF and Hyundai are at the focus of BASF Coatings' new electronic customer magazine.The Coatings Partner e-journal can be retrieved at the magazine’s newly designed home page at www.coatingspartner.com.

Technology carrier for state-of-the art paint systems

The early cooperation between Hyundai and BASF while developing i-flow has paid off, especially in the areas of design and environmental protection.Here, coatings play a huge role.“Even an environment-friendly car must shine, be scratch-resistant and have a convincing color design,” says Raimar Jahn, head of the Coatings Division and the Global Automotive Steering Committee at BASF in an interview.“For us, the concept car is a technology carrier for state-of-the-art coatings such as the new highly scratch-resistant iGloss clearcoat, paints for transparent plastics, as well as Liquid Metal effect paints.A special color was developed for the Hyundai concept car, which completely satisfied the expectations of the Hyundai designers.”

Impressive and environment-friendly

Thanks to the Liquid Metal finish, the i-flow gleams like polished stainless steel.Stephan Schwarte, head of Pigment/Paste Lab & Color Design at BASF Coatings, explains in a short film how aluminum flakes in a waterborne paint system produce an extremely impressive metallic finish.

The innovative clearcoat iGloss lends i-flow an extremely resilient protective layer against scratches and environmental impacts.BASF Coatings' new 2K-clearcoat combines the advantages of organic and anorganic materials and over time offers substantially better protection from microscratches, like those that occur at the car wash. 

Paints for transparent plastics

For modern automotive construction, polycarbonate is in increasing use as an alternative to glass – as a headlight hood, transparent roof or as a side and rear window.However, the scratch-resistance of polycarbonate does not match that of glass.For this reason, BASF has developed a new time- and material-saving single-layer finish that is abrasion-resistant like glass.You can read more about it in the new e-journal. 

Coatings Partner has a new home page

At the home page of the Coatings Partner customer magazine www.coatingspartner.com, in addition to the latest issue of the e-journal, you can also order the print version of Coatings Partner in German or English.On top of that, you can call up film clips, photo galleries and podcasts.Coatings Partner targets customers and business partners, as well as the interested public.