Mazda strips paint at high rate

Mazda strips paint at high rate
By Roger Brownlie

16 September 2003 – A paint stripping process from Mazda has improved the rate of paint removal from automotive bumpers by 10% to reach around 99.9%. The time required to do this has been reduced by one-third, the carmaker claims.

The process, developed with machinery maker Satake Corporation, increases the fraction of paint that can be removed from the surface resulting in strong, high-quality material suitable for re-use in manufacturing new bumpers.

The improved paint stripping process combines optical separation technology with the conventional paint stripping process. After conventional stripping, pellets are sorted using an optical sensor that detects those with traces of paint still attached so that they can be removed.

Since 1992 Mazda has been collecting damaged bumpers from dealers and recycling them for use as undershields. In 2001 Mazda began making bumper reinforcement parts from recycled material with the same strength a new material, using technology from plastics recycling specialist Takase Gosei Kagaku Corporation.

Mazda plans to introduce this new technology into mass produced models in 2004 with the aim of using recycled material for around 20-30% of bumpers.