Body shop news, Éric Descarries, Headline, News
TOYOTA EXPLORES COLOUR CHANGE
By Éric Descarries
Do you remember the electric BMW 1X that was unveiled at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in January 2022, with paint that could change colour? Now it’s Toyota’s turn to take an interest in this technology.
Indeed, we’ve just learned that the major Japanese automaker had already applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the same time. However, according to Motor Authority, this application was only published on March 19.
As a result, the brand’s dealers will be able to change the colour of a vehicle at the buyer’s request. It’s not a question of covering the vehicle with vinyl wrap, but of changing from one colour to another by rolling it through a sort of heated tunnel, while a robotized colour modulator hovers over the painted surface to complete the transformation.
In BMW’s case, the brand’s technicians used a photo-cross-linking resin technique used in e-readers to “varnish” the millions of microcapsules suspended in an outer envelope. An electric current caused the pigment circulating in these microcapsules to change colour, from white to gray to black, at the touch of a button.
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