GF98.00-U-2000A Painting/Corrosion Protection, Series Production, General

GF98.00-U-2000A Painting/corrosion Protection, Series Production, General

Corrosion protection measures should ensure the appearance and serviceability of vehicle components throughout the service life of the vehicle under the extremely different climate/use conditions found worldwide.

Due to the individual conditions under which our vehicles operate in more than 200 countries worldwide, the surface protection must withstand a host of environmental conditions and mechanical loads.

To meet these different requirements, great importance is attached to surface and corrosion protection at Mercedes-Benz. As there is no process which guarantees an identically high level of corrosion protection on all components under all conditions, many different processes are used in the plants and alongside each other in the vehicle.

Attention is paid to improving designs susceptible to corrosion as much as possible, to corrosion protection for those areas at risk due to their design, through good ventilation, provision for draining condensation from cavities etc. The system to be protected must be considered as a whole until a valid corrosion protection concept is finally defined. For this it is important to match the most diverse materials with those materials which meet the list of requirements by means of laboratory and practical tests.

For this reason extremely different coating systems are applied in practice and used with the most varied of processes on components of different types. Consequently the design and paint components which are used differently in the plants are to be regarded as equivalent in terms of quality and longevity.

The surfaces of materials can be protected by applying metallic and non-metallic coatings (e.g. by oiling, greasing, waxing, painting, chemical/metallic/ceramic and plastic coatings). In particular it is important that the many individual materials in the system should achieve the best possible corrosion protection in terms of quality.

In addition, in special cases the vehicle service life can be positively influenced by the use of corrosion-resistant basic materials.

Conserving resources through the correct choice of materials
The topic of health and safety at work and environmental protection is becoming increasingly more important and critical at Mercedes-Benz.

To avoid waste and to conserve resources throughout the life cycle of our vehicles as far as possible, the correct material must be selected even at the product planning stage.

Reducing/avoiding pollutants is of great importance particularly in the painting area. In collaboration with our partners we are increasingly using the "overall balance" method.

With the "overall balance" we underpin the entire life cycle of our products with information relevant to the environment.

For example, existing and future products are analyzed using these sophisticated tools to determine the "ecologically correct" materials and production processes for a component on a case-specific basis.

The increasing know-how in this field gives us the opportunity to obtain information quickly and objectively and to incorporate the knowledge gained in carefully weighed decisions.

As a result low-solvent coating materials, such as water-based or high-solid paint materials are increasingly being used in the individual plants. Also in the workshop repair area a changeover is being made in stages to water-based paint materials.

A new internal guideline concerning development to suit recycling at Mercedes-Benz should ensure that ecological material criteria are also observed during all development stages.

Only a program which is finely balanced between process control, working methods, material, people and the environment enables us to consistently live up to the Mercedes-Benz trade mark and the associated prestige of "Quality and longevity".

Note: The following diagram shows the basic sequence of painting operations during production.

The process can be changed at any time due to new processes, painting techniques and new paint materials.

Component Identification: