Ford Motor Company and U-Haul will put industry’s first fleet of vehicles painted with Ford’s new eco-friendly technology on the roads this week. The eco-friendly paint from Ford reduces green house gases by fifteen percent and reduces production costs by about $7 per vehicle. About 200 E-series trucks painted with this new technology have been delivered to U-Hall facilities throughout the country. U-Haul will tag these vehicles with eco-friendly decals and begin renting them to customers within this week. Ford will monitor this fleet over the year to import durability data for the paint.
Joe Hinrichs, vice president, North America Manufacturing, for Ford said:
This marks a big win for our customers, the environment and the business. We have high hopes for this technology based on our laboratory testing. Once we understand how it performs in the real world, we’ll determine how best to apply it to other manufacturing facilities.
In addition to the 15% reduction in CO2 emissions, the paint reduces Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions by 10%. Time taken to paint a vehicle reduces by 20% and paint shops 15% less in size than the traditional paint shops would suffice.
This high-solids, solvent-borne paint formulation contains more colour pigment that reduces the amount of paint required. Moreover, three coats of wet paint may be applied one over the other without waiting for the coats to dry out. Requirements for air-conditioning process or low temperature oven are also done away with.
Lab tests show that the paint is more resistant to chips and scratches in the long run, when compared to conventional water-borne paint.
Said Dean Cerimeli, U-Haul’s director of Truck and Trailer Product said:
When it comes to the environment and sustainability, we are happy to partner with Ford in this important field test. We believe this is the most environmentally responsible way to paint vehicles. And we applaud Ford for leading the industry.
It is good to see that the auto industry is trying to do its bit for the environment. Not just by reducing emissions and fuel-economy but paying attention to the overall manufacturing process of the vehicle. A welcome move from Ford.
[Courtesy: Ford]
