By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — November 7, 2018 — Audi is promising drivers a more personalized vehicle courtesy of an innovative painting process called partial matting.
Partial matting was developed by a team in the Technology Development division at Audi’s Ingolstadt site. In 2016, Audi put the first cars with partial matting onto the road – 24 to be exact.
“With this process, we have gained a great advantage over our competitors,” said Dr. Erhard Brandl, head of Audi sheet metal/painting technology development.
The process involves altering the surface of a painted part. In the first step, an employee sticks a template made of thin plastic film onto the painted component.
A specially developed system sprays the component under vacuum – similar to sand blasting – with a fine powder of crushed glass. This removes a few thousandths of a millimeter from the top layer of clear lacquer and at the same time roughens it slightly.
This difference in surface structure allows the motif to stand out clearly after the template is removed. Each painted surface in the interior or exterior of the car can be individualized in this way.
With partial matting, every micrometer counts – the spray force must not be too high, otherwise the underlying layer of paint would be damaged.
With the #2 special edition of the Audi Q2, the brand is now using this innovative painting process for the first time in volume production. The process has been improved and automated since it was first introduced in 2016.
Matting a sideblade for the Audi Q2 only takes about a minute. The employees in the Ingolstadt paint shop can also effortlessly process larger components: With the “TT 20 Years” special model on the 20th anniversary of the TT series for example, the Audi rings on the side skirts are partially matted. This form of personalization is available for the Audi R8 in the “Audi exclusive” program.
