Zaino rendered useless!
02-07-2003 | 08:43 AM
#1
Zaino rendered useless! Sollx, a new chemical "film" developed by General Electric (GE) that covers plastic surfaces like Saran Wrap. When plastic with Sollx emerges from a mold, it gleams like freshly painted metal, in a variety of colors. It's also more resistant to scratches and chemicals than any comparable painted finish.
Segway's $5,000 scooters are the first commercially available vehicles to wear Sollx-covered parts. While GE Plastics is also trying to get the product on golf carts, jet skis, and outdoor equipment, the automobile is where the company expects to find Sollx's most profitable uses -- first as a finish for small plastic components such as side-view mirror housings and eventually as the outer coating on entire plastic-bodied cars.
True, you can already find plastic fenders on the New Beetle, ding-resistant polycarbonate doors on the Saturn, and all-plastic body panels on DaimlerChrysler's (DCX) European smart cars. But for the most part, automobiles are still hulking masses of steel that require paint -- the auto industry's single biggest manufacturing expense. Automated paint facilities, where cars are sent through coating ovens to have their high-gloss finishes baked on, account for more than a third of the cost of most car factories, running as much as $400 million apiece. "Everybody's goal is to get rid of the paint shop," says Subi Dinda, a plastics expert at DaimlerChrysler, which is already experimenting with Sollx for components such as mirror housings, doors, and fenders.
For years, car designers have been dying to get more plastic into automobiles, since it reduces weight and gives them much more latitude in the design process. And they like Sollx for its deep, attractive gloss. GE Plastics claims that the material is also theoretically capable of "thermochromic" effects that change the color with the temperature -- imagine your Lexus molting from red to black as you head from the desert to the mountains. (Note to brand builders: It's even possible to chemically print colored insignias and logos on the film.) The cost is roughly the same as that of painted plastic.
Automakers, of course, aren't about to shut down their expensive paint plants anytime soon, and until plastic itself comes down in price -- it's at least three times as expensive as the galvanized steel used in cars -- the market for Sollx will be confined to small parts, or cars with small production runs. GE Plastics is so bullish on its potential, though, that the company is already devising ways to make Sollx mimic the odd imperfections of paint, so that a Sollx-coated fender will look indistinguishable from the painted metal body panel next to it. As Margaret Blohm, a research scientist at GE who headed Sollx's development, explains, "We could look better than paint. But right now, we have to look like paint."
Segway's $5,000 scooters are the first commercially available vehicles to wear Sollx-covered parts. While GE Plastics is also trying to get the product on golf carts, jet skis, and outdoor equipment, the automobile is where the company expects to find Sollx's most profitable uses -- first as a finish for small plastic components such as side-view mirror housings and eventually as the outer coating on entire plastic-bodied cars.
True, you can already find plastic fenders on the New Beetle, ding-resistant polycarbonate doors on the Saturn, and all-plastic body panels on DaimlerChrysler's (DCX) European smart cars. But for the most part, automobiles are still hulking masses of steel that require paint -- the auto industry's single biggest manufacturing expense. Automated paint facilities, where cars are sent through coating ovens to have their high-gloss finishes baked on, account for more than a third of the cost of most car factories, running as much as $400 million apiece. "Everybody's goal is to get rid of the paint shop," says Subi Dinda, a plastics expert at DaimlerChrysler, which is already experimenting with Sollx for components such as mirror housings, doors, and fenders.
For years, car designers have been dying to get more plastic into automobiles, since it reduces weight and gives them much more latitude in the design process. And they like Sollx for its deep, attractive gloss. GE Plastics claims that the material is also theoretically capable of "thermochromic" effects that change the color with the temperature -- imagine your Lexus molting from red to black as you head from the desert to the mountains. (Note to brand builders: It's even possible to chemically print colored insignias and logos on the film.) The cost is roughly the same as that of painted plastic.
Automakers, of course, aren't about to shut down their expensive paint plants anytime soon, and until plastic itself comes down in price -- it's at least three times as expensive as the galvanized steel used in cars -- the market for Sollx will be confined to small parts, or cars with small production runs. GE Plastics is so bullish on its potential, though, that the company is already devising ways to make Sollx mimic the odd imperfections of paint, so that a Sollx-coated fender will look indistinguishable from the painted metal body panel next to it. As Margaret Blohm, a research scientist at GE who headed Sollx's development, explains, "We could look better than paint. But right now, we have to look like paint."
02-07-2003 | 02:37 PM
#4
Re: Zaino rendered useless! It probaly will come out sooner or later and our detailing products will become useless.
That doesn't mean Zaino and everyone else won't come out with a detailing product for that plastic.
I don't think it'll be happening anytime soon so I wouldn't worry.
<small>[ February 07, 2003, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: Joe D ]</small>
That doesn't mean Zaino and everyone else won't come out with a detailing product for that plastic.
I don't think it'll be happening anytime soon so I wouldn't worry.
<small>[ February 07, 2003, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: Joe D ]</small>
02-08-2003 | 01:31 AM
#5
On The Tree
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 162
Likes: 0
From: Eau Claire, PA
Re: Zaino rendered useless! WTF??? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" /> What the hell does this have to do with rendering zaino uslesss at the current time? And why just zaino? Odd! They have been predicting that auto will be made of plastic for years now. We were also supposed to be cruising around in flying cars by now too. Live in the now...not the future!!! Long live American Iron Muscle cars <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" />
02-09-2003 | 12:01 AM
#6
Re: Zaino rendered useless! What the hell says you cant use Zaino on it anyway? Ive never used it myself, but if you can use it on Corvettes and other similarly constructed vehicles (which arent metal <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> ) then i dont see why using it on plastic, or a plastic type laminent would hurt