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Translucent coatings make backlit metal designs a reality
IHI Hauzer Techno Coating
Cromatipic is known in the automotive industry as IHI Hauzer’s clean, environmentally friendly alternative to chrome electroplating. However, design trends are changing in automotive and beyond. Designers now want to incorporate backlighting in metal-look design elements, and Cromatipic holds great promise for those applications.
The two main techniques for incorporating backlights are lasering and translucent application. Translucent elements look like solid metal when unlit but allow backlighting to shine through. With lasering, the metal-look coating is ablated by laser in certain areas. The coated parts block out the backlight while the parts where the coating has been removed are as transparent as the substrate.
Both translucency and lasering set new requirements for the coating properties. A translucent coating needs to be as thin as possible. A lasered coating must be able to deal with the edges caused by lasering. All of this is in addition to the normal coating properties customers expect.
Hauzer’s results show that Cromatipic can achieve a translucent coating. Laser ablation tests on Cromatipic coatings, done with partners who can match the laser’s frequency to the specific Hauzer coating, have also led to positive internal results with successful evaluation. Right now, Hauzer is working with customers to determine their backlighting requirements and incorporate new test standards in the Hauzer Iberica Cromatipic competence center.
Booth: A4521