The working group, led by the Federal Association of Vehicle Painters (BFL), worked on the technical document for two years in collaboration with the working group of publicly appointed and sworn experts for vehicle painting and the Allianz Center for Technology. "In the leaflet, we show the structure of a standard paint job and compare it with a refinish. This makes it clear why a refinish will always have higher coating thicknesses," says Torsten Schmidt, Head of the Vehicle Paintwork Division at the BFL, who was responsible for the working group.
Paint layer thicknesses and their composition
The thirteen-page document compares the process of industrial series painting in vehicle production with manual refinishing. It also explains the relationship between body fillers in the repair process and the overall paint layer thickness. The former are to be allocated to the substrate and thus to the body work and are therefore to be taken into account. Several graphics from AZT Automotive GmbH also show how paint layer thicknesses can be composed. Accordingly, a professional repair of a vehicle paint job can consist of several layers. DeKoLaKa thus makes it clear that increased paint layer thicknesses alone are not a reason to classify vehicle refinishing as unprofessional.