Covestro Accelerates Coating Innovation for Automotive Interior and Exterior Parts Using Direct Coating Process (In-Mold Coating Technology)

Covestro is strengthening its global support for the "direct coating process – in-mold coating technology"—an improved two-shot molding process that combines injection molding with polyurethane coating. This technology can reduce costs and energy consumption, simplify production processes, and create coated plastic parts with higher quality and greater design flexibility for automotive applications.

The significance of this technology lies in the fact that traditional coating processes for automotive components often involve multiple steps, each adding cost, consuming energy, and limiting design freedom. Covestro's direct coating process transfers the molded part to a second mold cavity, where a low-viscosity, two-component polyurethane (2K PU) is injected and cured within the mold. This integrated process eliminates the need for traditional coating or painting lines, shortens cycle times, simplifies operations, and enables more flexible, scalable production of various coating designs, including tactile and visual effects.

Benjamin Herzberg, In-Mold Coating Technology Expert at Covestro, stated: "With an extensive partner network covering the entire value chain, we are fully prepared to support the global rollout of direct coating technology. We have over two decades of extensive experience in the direct coating process, with a long-term focus on joint projects in the automotive industry. Our application and scale-up production technology is present in global technology centers and supported by a strong intellectual property portfolio. Our latest customer support upgrade is a tool that compares the costs and CO2 emissions of the direct coating process with those of traditional manufacturing processes."

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Covestro also provides customized polycarbonate substrates, such as Makrolon® IMC2477, which offer excellent adhesion to polyurethane coatings while maintaining good optical properties in both transparent and colored opaque coatings. Furthermore, Covestro has designed dedicated polyurethane coating raw materials for direct coating applications, including fast-curing, low-viscosity polyisocyanates and polyols suitable for such uses.

Thomas Baeker, Market Manager Industrial & Automotive Coatings at Covestro, added: "Customers can leverage our guidance in mold design and process optimization, as well as our facilities for design trials and validation of parts and production conditions, to accelerate their time-to-market."

Since 2021, a leading German automotive manufacturer has implemented the direct coating process using Covestro's products for the production of automotive interior and exterior parts.