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Car Body Repair
Trends in car manufacturing
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In the last 10 to 15 years, types of high strength steel have significantly outgrown the use of standard steel and other ferrous materials. Also lightweight materials such as aluminium and composite materials have clearly grown in use.
Within any modern cars, you will now find areas of high strength materials next to materials that are particularly designed to absorb any impact to protect vehicle passengers.
The use of high strength steel types also allows decreased panel thickness to reduce the weight of the car, but in parallel maintaining high safety crash standards.
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Another change happens in the way car bodies are built - due to the new materials, you will find less spot welding, but increased use of adhesives and rivets, which also determine different new repair methods such as increased use of braising and the combined use of adhesives with rivets.
The result of this changes the way modern cars need to be repaired:
High strength steel types react more sensitive to thermal stress and decreased thickness of panels requires more precise grinding and sanding methods to prevent loss of structural integrity.
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- Paint removal prior to welding or bonding to strip the material down to bare metal in order to repair.
- Working with the metal to remove welding lines or spots.
- Cutting the metal
Body Shop Grinding and Sanding Processes can be separated into several areas:
For all of these activities, 3M offers solutions, which help to increase your productivity and allow smooth handover to the paint area for final refinish work.
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A range of one-component polyurethane adhesives, designed for windscreen, side and rear window bonding. Easy to extrude with 3M™ Applicators, the adhesive comes in various sizes of sachet and cartridge. Three versions are available allowing drive-away times of one, three or eight hours.
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3M offers a variety of Seam Sealing Solutions for your refinish requirements - in combination with a variety of applicators, this assures that various finishes can be achieved to match OEM appearance. Be it for standard seams, wet-on-wet processes or sprayed seam sealers, the 3M range provides you with a wide choice.
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Wherever a full welding process is not possible or it is not desired to fit a non-structural replacement part to a car, you can easily use the 3M Panel Bonding Repair process.
Whenever you need to use a truely structural adhesive for bonding applications, the 3M process for Impact Resistant Structural Adhesive is the process of your choice. Several OEMs specify it for absorption for collision energy forces; this adhesive can be used also on structural parts.
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3M™ Accuspray™ Pressurised HGP Spray Gun and PPS™ Pressure Cups are designed for high viscosity coatings such as underbody protection, high build primers and stonechip coatings.
With the ability to control thickness and finish, the system allows for minimal waste in product and time, making it both efficient and effective - and additionally, any cleaning work is reduced to a minimum. The Accuspray™ atomising heads / nozzles allow for different textured coatings to be applied, meaning you can easily match several different OEM textures to get the finish you need.
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With today’s ever evolving substrates being used in automotive construction, industry organizations and OEMs alike specify the use of cavity wax to prevent corrosion.
3M™ Inner Cavity Waxes amber or transparent are a simple and effective way to ensure corrosion protection, one of the most important parts of automotive repairs.
