Multiscale Characterization of Automotive Surface Coating Formation for Sustainable Manufacturing*

Automotive surface coating manufacturing is one of the most sophisticated and expensive steps in automotive assembly. This step involves generating multiple thin layers of polymeric coatings on the vehicle surface through paint spray and curing in a multistage, dynamically changing environment. Traditionally, the quality control is solely post-process inspection based, and process operational adjustment is only experience based, thus the manufacturing may not be (highly) sustainable. In this article, a multiscale system modeling and analysis methodology is introduced for achieving a sustainable application of polymeric materials through paint spray and film curing in automotive surface coating manufacturing. By this methodology, the correlations among paint material, application processes and coating performance can be identified. The model-based analysis allows a comprehensive and deep study of the dynamic behaviors of the material, process, and product in a wide spectrum of length and time. Case studies illustrate the efficacy of the methodology for sustainable manufacturing.