Nanopaint Spray and Nanocoating Development: Analysis of Energy and Material Efficiency, Environmental Quality and Health Impact

Nanopaint is predicted to be a dominant material in the coating industry in the near future, as it may significantly improve coating’s physical and chemical properties and offer new functionalities in automotive applications. However, in application, nanoparticle release to the environment is a major concern. In production, paint is sprayed at a very high speed by robots to the surface of vehicle bodies that move steadily in a long paint booth. While most of the paint material reaches panel surfaces, numerous nanopaint particles enter the working environment. Some will reach and stay on the walls of the booth, some flow around in the air, and others are taken by the ventilation air in the booth to enter the drainage water system. In this work, we introduce a CFD-based modeling and simulation technique that can characterize nanoparticle transport behavior, estimate nanocoating quality, energy efficiency, and nanoparticle emission, and optimize the operation.