General Motors (GM) will modify the paint shop at its Toluca, Mexico, assembly plant later this year with a three-coat, one-bake painting process from DuPont Automotive OEM Coatings known as “3-Wet.” The technology is designed to reduce facility operating costs and provide environmental benefits.

General Motors (GM) will modify the paint shop at its Toluca, Mexico, assembly plant later this year with a three-coat, one-bake painting process from DuPont Automotive OEM Coatings known as “3-Wet.” The technology is designed to reduce facility operating costs and provide environmental benefits.

The new paint line process eliminates the need for primer bake and primer sanding. It allows the primer, basecoat and clearcoat to be applied wet-on-wet-on-wet and baked in a single topcoat oven, without compromising durability, quality, appearance or color design. Environmental benefits include reduced energy consumption and lowered emissions.

“We believe [this process] points the way for maintaining high vehicle finish quality while reducing new paint shop investment and operating expense,” said James Haverland, GM’s director of Paint Materials, M.E. Global Paint & Polymers Center.

This full implementation of the DuPont high-solids, solventborne 3-Wet technology reportedly will be the first of its kind in the automotive industry.

For more information, contact Tom Wickham at GM at 248.753.5187 ortom.wickham@gm.com, or contact Terry Cressy at DuPont Automotive at 248.583.8102 orterrence.q.cressy@usa.dupont.com.