The world of car paints has fascinated me. still unclear, which is why I gladly accepted PPG's invitation to its annual event, the Color Show 2023. Dedicated to the presentation of the new colors of 2024, the event brings together customers, in this case Stellantis, to show what's new of the range through proposals which could then become the new color of the models arriving in dealerships.

But how does it work?After a presentation that transforms the company's values ​​and the trends of the year into colors collected in three volumes, each characterized by its own identity, the 43 shades are shown on some samples in an exhibition where the participants evaluate the yield and take notes, discussing the possibility of to choose precisely these colors for new generation cars.

On the other hand, and Stellantis has done a lot of publicity on this, the color can be an integral part of the product strategy, just as happened with the new Fiat 600.

The event then elected the color of the year according to PPG, called Limitless and rendered as a honey beige chosen for its compatibility with the both warm and cold tones. The context, however, is not only emotional, primary characteristic of colors, but it is also technical.

During the presentation I discovered the path towards sustainabilityby PPG, made of digital and material research. The company, in recent times, has in fact initiated a change aimed at saving in terms of materials, production and emissions. Thanks to digital, in fact, fewer paint samples are created (which then have to be cooked and transported to customers' style centers).

If previously several production, firing and sending cycles were necessary before arriving at the shade ideal for the customer, today a couple of steps are usually enough thanks to the use of AI and algorithms that allow you to exploit digital to show realistic previews of the finished product. In practice, you reach your goal with fewer attemptsand, in doing so, you save energy and limit the use of raw materials.

The other interesting theme is the technological one of Paint Film, the coating technology that transfers the paint to the car through an application process different from the traditional one. In a very approximate way one can assimilate the concept to wrapping, except that here the basis is always and in any case the paint, which however it is applied like a film.

In addition to the constant work on color, a primary focus of PPG is digitalisation. In fact, three years after the preview announcement, PPG Automotive OEM Coatings has accelerated the launch of a digital styling program for the automotive sector that includes a “transmission line/figure” exclusive, capable of accurately representing the color style of car models. The project allows you to range among the over 3,000 colors currently available in the PPG digital archive and apply them in the virtual showroom, giving a realistic vision of the shades, with attention to the effects, changes based on the lights and environments. In this way it is It is possible to evaluate color with a three-dimensional experience and the digital shapes created allow you to improve the chromatic rendering experience.

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