Mazda now painting cars greener

The Mazda Motor Corporation continues to find ways to be a better global citizen with a car painting system that it says has the lowest environmental impact in the world. The new “Aqua-Tech Paint System” reduces the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) by 57% and, happily, improves the paint job.

“Aqua-Tech” maintains the same world-class low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as Mazda’s existing “Three Layer Wet Paint” system but further reduces VOC emissions to just 15 grams per square meter of body surface.

While water-based paints are naturally lower in VOC emissions than solvent-based paint, drying them uses much more energy and, thus, increases CO2. Mazda have overcome this with a combination of improved paint technology and a more efficient evaporative drying system.

Mazda has successfully launched the Aqua-tech Paint System for vehicle body painting at its Ujina Plant No.1 in Japan.