SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT PARTNER
With development of the coating – which has been named “Anticorit CPX”, standing for “corrosion protection thixotropic” – the team led by Takada and Bosmans has demonstrated a new quality. In fact, the European subsidiary is now not only capable of introducing materials, but also developing them together with local European suppliers. This is a change that the Toyota Motor Corporation R&D Headquarters wholeheartedly supports. “We are very thankful that we have been given this opportunity by Toyota Headquarters”, comments Yu Takada.
One factor that called for the new corrosion prevention coating was the short application area in the UK plant. The challenge here was to find a new approach to prevent potential dripping of the coating after application. This could only be solved by adapting the rheological behavior of the material. Curing needed to take place much quicker. Another key factor favoring the development of a new product was that Anticorit CPX is used to protect cavities, specifically the rocker area – the section that runs below the doors and is part of the car’s body. To be applicable here, the material must be compatible with the spray technology in use. On top of that, it needs to be suitable for recirculation in the pipelines without any loss in performance, for example during short periods of shut down of the plant.
“Given these special requirements, Véronique Vandenberghe from Toyota Motor Europe and Takahisa Sudo from Toyota Motor Corporation were tasked with finding the right partner,” explains Takada. They ultimately found what they were looking for with FUCHS and the decision to cooperate was then made relatively quickly.