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Gloss Plastic Could Eliminate Auto Painting
customs writes "There is a new plastic out from GE that covers plastic surfaces with a really good sheen. It's more resistant to scratches and random chemicals compared to conventional paint. It's actually a .5 mm polymer called Sollx; the Segway was the first semi-mass-produced product to use it, it has slender two tone fenders. Kinda cool. Auto painting is the industries largest manufacturing expense, and this could be what they're looking for...as soon as the price comes down."
At the bottom of the article, it states that the coating doesn't fade:
It never fades. Sunlight's ultraviolet rays trigger a chemical reaction in the Sollx film, forming a protective outer coating that won't decay.
I'd be more concerned about scratches -- how do I touchup a film?
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
The article mentions a car that is already available which has full plastic parts. More info can be found at the Smart website. I drive one of these, and I have bumped into obstacles while parking several times. Unlike a metal body, the plastic panel just springs back into shape after a bump. With a metal body, it would have been damaged visibly.
Other Smart drivers reported that after a crash, the car had no visible damge while the invisible parts beneath the body panels had been damaged severely, but the robust body panel had been hiding the damage.
I can really recommend these cars. They are the ultimate opposite to an SUV. 2.49 m long (7.5 feet!), 695 kg gross weight, can turn on a dime... wonderful.
Yes, you are right there. -- Another glass of champagne?
Formula 1 cars are made mostly of carbon fiber. Carbon Fiber can absorb more of an impact than any other known material on earth plus they are lighter than any metal that can be used as a building material. ..If only it were cheaper :(.
On the other hand plastic cars are bad for the consumer and good for the manufacturer. It can simplify the building process greatly while being able to add shapes to the car that would be impossible to make in metal. Features like that will make the car look better and possibly sell better as well. The bad thing for the consumer is that the life of the car will not rival a car made out of galvanized steel. They may claim that the plastic coating will last forever. Eventually the coating will fade, chip, scratch, etc. And the car will look horrible sometime down the road. In a steel car you can just get the whole thing repainted without a problem. When there is an accident with the plastic car the consumer will have no choice but to replace it from dealer parts.
Some cars that are well over 50 years old are still being used today for recreation. These cars go under intense restorations and customizations over the years.
Plastic cars will not be able to be restored in this way. You can also forget about chopping the roof or anything like that because plastic cars cannot be modified without actually replacing parts.
These plastic cars will do nothing but fuel the throw away culture that in recent years has gained velocity. Nothing today can be really be repaired. Once it goes bad it gets thrown away. This keeps a purpetual need to constantly buy new things of the same item over and over and over. This even applies to computers now. The intel has changed the core multiple times in the p4's and each time not making them backward compatible. Sometimes only a few months goes by when something like that happens.
The whole trend of this started way back when GE and Phillips decided that rather make a lightbulb last forever lets put a limited lifespan on them so we will get repeat sales. Before that nearly every product made could be repaired at a local shop.
IMHO there is nothing that can be done to reverse the process of making every product we own be chinsey. Since we buy stuff with essentially nothing since cash money really has no value anyway. Somewhere down the road when the entire population has turned into brainless automotons because all our decisions are being made by machines there will be nothing left of this great country's rights and ideas that we take for granted today. The govt will eventually win total control over us. This is a basically a law of governments that when their limits are exceeded they will create new limits somehow someway through an endless string of loopholes that will come full circle and suffocate us all.