Nippon Paint India is preparing its automotive coatings business for a market in which paint will have to do more than provide colour and shine.
The company already supplies E20-compatible coatings for metal two-wheeler fuel tanks, is working with customers on E30 and E40 formulations, and says it has developed a product capable of withstanding E60. It is also using artificial intelligence to speed up colour matching, developing lower-temperature coating systems, and tapping its Japanese research teams for finishes suited to LiDAR-equipped vehicles.
These programmes form part of Nippon Paint’s effort to deepen its role in India’s automotive value chain. Automotive contributes about one-third of its industrial coatings business, which supplies two-wheeler and commercial-vehicle manufacturers, as well as component makers. Passenger-car body coatings are handled separately through its joint venture, Berger Nippon Paint Automotive Coatings.
“What the end consumer sees is the colour. But the main property of the paint is the paint system and the protection it gives to the surface,” said Subash Gaijes Selvaraj, president of Nippon Paint India’s Industrial Coatings Business.
The company has a strong presence in two-wheelers and alloy wheels. Gaijes said all but one major motorcycle manufacturer in India uses its products. He also estimated that Nippon Paint’s systems are used on around seven out of every 10 alloy wheels fitted on cars in the country.
As vehicles and production processes become more complex, the company wants to position itself as a technology partner that can develop and test coatings around the requirements of individual manufacturers.
Preparing for Higher Ethanol Blends
According to Gaijes, as ethanol content rises in fuels, coatings used around fuel tanks will require greater resistance to chemical exposure and corrosion. Fuel spilt during refuelling can affect the paint finish and, if the coating weakens, expose the metal beneath it, he said.
The change therefore affects more than engines, fuel injectors, hoses and seals. Coatings, resins and other materials that come into contact with the fuel or its vapours may also need to be reformulated.
Nippon Paint currently supplies coatings designed to withstand E20 petrol on metal motorcycle fuel tanks. It is working with customers on E30 and E40 formulations and has developed an E60-compatible product, Gaijes said.
“We are ready with E60 on a metal fuel tank,” he said, adding that the company is also studying what changes may be required for E85.
The company did not disclose whether the E60 product has completed customer validation or entered commercial production.
For Nippon Paint, early development of such products could help it retain or expand business with two-wheeler manufacturers as they prepare vehicles for a wider range of fuel blends.
Local R&D, Global Support
Nippon Paint’s automotive strategy rests partly on its ability to replicate customer paint-shop conditions before a product reaches the production line.
At its research centre in western India, the company uses a full-sized industrial robot to test the application of coatings. It can change spray guns and operating settings to match the systems used by individual vehicle manufacturers.
Every automotive factory can use a different combination of robots, spray equipment, pressure and line settings. A paint that performs well under one set of conditions may require adjustments before it can be used at another plant.
Nippon Paint simulates these conditions during product development. The centre also has smaller versions of ovens and other paint-shop equipment to study how coatings behave during application and curing.
The Indian team develops products for domestic and export customers. It also draws on Nippon Paint’s research centres in Japan, the US and other markets for specialised technologies and long-term research programmes.
The company initially brought several technologies from Japan. But over time, the focus shifted to local development as the business grew and customers sought products suited to Indian conditions, said Gaijes.
Coatings used in India must perform across coastal regions prone to corrosion, areas with high humidity and heavy monsoons, and hotter, drier markets. A two-wheeler sold nationally must retain its finish and protective properties across these conditions.
Cutting Paint-Shop Energy Use
Nippon Paint is also developing products that can help automakers reduce the energy and time required to paint components.
Metallic finishes usually require a base coat followed by a transparent clear coat. Each stage can require a separate application and baking process.
The company has developed a single-coat metallic system for a two-wheeler customer, removing one application and curing stage. The product has been in commercial use for more than 10 years, Gaijes said.
“If you eliminate one coat, you are saving energy and reducing the carbon footprint,” he said.
The company is also working with an automotive customer to reduce the curing temperature of a coating from around 140 degrees Celsius to 130 degrees Celsius.
Lowering the oven temperature can reduce energy consumption when the process is repeated across thousands of parts. Nippon Paint, however, has not disclosed the expected cost or energy savings from the programme, or whether the coating has entered series production.
The company has also developed waterborne and high-solid coating systems. Waterborne paints reduce dependence on organic solvents, while high-solid formulations lower the proportion of solvent released during curing.
Its automotive coating portfolio is also free of heavy metals, according to Gaijes.
Together, these technologies allow Nippon Paint to offer automakers more than a change in colour or finish. They can potentially reduce the number of manufacturing processes, oven temperatures, solvent use and the overall environmental impact of the paint shop.
AI Enters Colour Development
While paint is becoming more functional, colour consistency remains a critical requirement. A manufacturer cannot have motorcycles or components carrying supposedly identical shades that look different when placed together in a showroom.
Maintaining consistency is difficult because pigments can vary slightly between production batches. A difference that is difficult to detect when two samples are viewed separately may become visible when finished vehicles are parked next to one another.
Paint manufacturers therefore adjust each batch through a process known as tinting and shade matching. Technicians add small quantities of pigments, apply the paint and compare the result with the shade approved by the vehicle manufacturer.
The process can require several attempts, known as shots, before the correct colour is achieved.
Nippon Paint has introduced artificial intelligence and machine learning to recommend the adjustments needed. Selvaraj said the system has reduced the number of colour-matching trials from around seven to three.
“It cannot eliminate the person, but it has reduced the number of shots from seven to three,” he said.
The company did not disclose the resulting savings in development time, pigment use or cost.
Gaijes does not expect the technology to replace colour specialists. Instead, the company is using AI to improve productivity in a function where trained people are limited and automotive customers are introducing more colours, dual-tone finishes and model-specific shades.
Colour matching still combines measurement with human judgement. Instruments can identify variations, but experienced specialists determine how the finish will appear under different lighting and viewing conditions.
For Nippon Paint, AI offers a way to combine that expertise with faster formulation and turnaround.
Preparing Paint for Sensor-Led Vehicles
The longer-term opportunity lies in coatings designed for vehicles that increasingly depend on cameras, radar and LiDAR.
Nippon Paint’s research teams in Japan are studying coating systems whose reflective properties can help LiDAR-equipped vehicles identify other vehicles more reliably, Gaijes said.
LiDAR systems emit light and measure the reflected signal to determine the distance and shape of surrounding objects. A coating’s pigment chemistry and reflectivity at the wavelengths used by the sensor may influence how easily a vehicle can be detected. The work remains at the research stage.
The technology is also distinct from the conductive primers, E20 coatings and AI-assisted colour matching already in commercial use.
However, it gives the company an early position in an area that may become more important as automakers add advanced driver-assistance and automated-driving functions.
A future automotive finish may have to meet two very different requirements: appeal to the buyer and remain recognisable to the sensors of another vehicle.
As fuel specifications, materials, factories and vehicle sensors evolve, the company wants to become involved earlier in the development process, moving from a supplier of finishes to a technology partner on the factory floor.