Covestro enhances automotive refinishing industry

A new ingenious technology greatly simplifies and speeds up the dispensing of automotive refinish paints in paint shops. Covestro is presenting the innovative system, called Dockit®, at its Digital Expo 2021 from September 14 to 16, 2021. The clear coating and hardener are kept in optimum mixing ratio and are ready for use in the shortest possible time. The tests carried out so far under realistic conditions in external workshops have proven to be very successful.

Covestro will present the project during Digital Expo 2021 from September 14 to 16. Further explanations will be provided in a webinar with Covestro experts Marc Schreiber and Holger Mundstock on September 14, starting at 1 p.m. CEST.

The system was developed a few years back by Marc Schreiber, a Covestro employee, who took part in his company's first Start-up Challenge – and he won: the project turned out to be so promising that it became a separate venture called "go clear". As founders, he and his team were temporarily released from their regular jobs and given the necessary financial means to push the development to series maturity. The aim of Covestro's Start-up Challenge is to promote creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset.

Dosing paint in a capsule

A daily routine in car repair shops and paint shops: Raw materials for 2-component clear coating are measured out, weighed and mixed. For professionals, these are quick tasks that they carry out day after day. All in all, however, they cost precious time that could be spent on the actual painting process. If mistakes are made on top of that in the process, this can have an unfavorable effect on the painting result and, in the worst case, even mean financial losses. A new system from Covestro simplifies preparation considerably: it combines the entire mixing process in just one capsule.

The Dockit® system contains clear coating and hardener in separate chambers in a capsule. Both components are already in the optimum mixing ratio. A touch of a button and they flow into each other and can be mixed within a very short time by simply shaking them – "the finished coating is available exactly when it is needed," explains Marc Schreiber, Covestro coatings expert and "inventor" of the system. "The painters no longer need to interrupt their work and can fully focus on achieving a good painting result."

No additional equipment needed

The capsule is screwed onto the spray gun with the help of an adapter and the clear coating is immediately ready for use, it can be applied as usual. Painters do not need any additional equipment when using the Dockit® system. The capsule is suitable for most conventional 2-component clear coatings. As no container has to be opened, the components and hence the coatings are protected from dust and dirt.