REFLECTIONS ON BUICK VERANO'S SHINY PAINT JOB

April 22, 2015 by Buick

• Process improves gloss and durability while reducing environmental impact

DETROIT – Residential and commercial paint manufacturers think about the environmental impact of their product on more than just Earth Day. Seventy percent of the energy used in vehicle assembly is in the paint process. It takes as much energy – 2.5 megawatt hours – to paint a car as it would to cover the electricity bill of a typical U.S. home for nine weeks.

Starting in 2011, Orion Assembly, home of the Buick Verano, pioneered the use of a water-based 'three-wet' paint process in the United States in a new paint shop. This process eliminated the need for a primer bake oven, normally used between the primer and color-coating layers. The result: three layers of paint applied — primer, color and clear coat one after another while still wet — before the vehicle takes a single trip through the oven. This plant now only uses about 1 megawatt hour of energy to paint each vehicle.

Read more at GM FastLane.

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