Surface Treatments for Automotive Manufacturing

We offer a full range of surface treatment processes, products and equipment to meet the challenges of automotive designers and manufacturers such as lightweight construction, process cost reduction and increasing sustainability, all while delivering high quality performance products. Furthermore, our experts are ready to help you with line design and optimization, waste water treatment and promotion of worker safety and sustainability. Our solutions are highly reliable, eco-conscious and in compliance with worker safety regulations.

Our portfolio of automotive surface technologies is also suitable for tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers as well as commercial vehicles.

Benefits of surface treatments and functional coatings:

• State-of-the-art corrosion protection and paint adhesion with stable processes
• Tailor-made solutions for light and mixed-metal substrates
• Reduced energy and water consumption
• Fewer process step
• Reduced sludge and other environmental hazards
• Increased sustainability

Challenges of lighter vehicle structures
Weight reduction in car bodies is causing significant changes to the processes applied in body and paint shops. Lighter car bodies manufactured from mixed steel and lighter metals like aluminum require new approaches to surface treatments for bodies-in-white and other components.

BONDERITE Next Generation Metal Pretreatment Technology

Our BONDERITE Next Generation Metal Pretreatment Technology allows the increased use of light metals while maintaining excellent corrosion protection, reducing/eliminating the heavy metals and sludge generation.

Profit from our leading-edge technologies, innovative power, global presence and state-of-the-art services and enjoy the performance, process reliability, efficiency and sustainability that come with our BONDERITE Next Generation Metal Pretreatment solutions.
 

Learn more about our automotive surface treatment technologies below:

BONDERITE Bridge Technologies

Nowadays, automotive manufacturers are re-examining every aspect of a vehicle to ensure compliance with the 2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which explains the lightweighting trend. After all, reducing a vehicle’s weight by just 10 percent can improve fuel economy by 6-8 percent.

Mixed materials play a key role in weight reduction. At Henkel we are ready to help you increase the use of alternative substrates with weight-saving properties for every part of a vehicle – from the powertrain/chassis to the body-in-white.

BONDERITE M-ZN 2798

The Flexible Weight-Saver
Zirconium-Based Pretreatment for a Metal Mix up to 95%* Aluminum

The BONDERITE Bridge Technology enables vehicle lightweighting by processing a metal mix of up to 95* percent aluminum. A zinc phosphate coating (with or without Nickel) is applied on cold-rolled steel and zinc-coated substrates, while a zirconium-based coating is applied on the aluminum surfaces.  Easily integrated into existing production lines without cost-intensive modifications, the zirconium-based pretreatment for aluminum gives you flexibility in your paint shop operation and a variety of benefits.

How You Benefit

• Allows for a reduction in vehicle weight
• Improves fuel economy
• Enables a metal mix of up to 85% aluminum to be processed via a traditional zinc phosphate
• Saves process costs compared to standard aluminum phosphating
  
• Selective deposition on each substrate: zinc phosphate on CRS, EG and HDG, zirconium-oxide on Aluminum*
• Excellent corrosion performance on all substrates
  
• Less sludge generation
• Existing phosphate systems convertible with minimal cost and downtime

*CRS: Cold-Rolled Steel, EG: Electro-Galvanized, HDG: Hot Dipped Galvanized

BONDERITE Thin-Film Pretreatment Technology

BONDERITE Thin-Film Pretreatment Technology (formerly known as BONDERITE Tectalis) is the fast, easy, sustainable and efficient alternative to zinc phosphate. It is an innovative multi-metal pretreatment which leads to superior corrosion and adhesion resistance. Thin-Film Pretreatment  Technology allows to reduce process steps while reducing energy and almost eliminating sludge generation.

Thin-Film Coatings
Thin-Film Pretreatment Technology form a cohesive, inorganic, high-density coating. This protective layer is significantly thinner than a traditional zinc phosphate and has been specifically developed for all metal surfaces: steel, zinc and aluminum. Thin-Film Pretreatment coatings are generally around 50nm in thickness compared to zinc phosphate at 5,000 nm. Thin-Film Pretreatment Technologies combine ecological and process cost saving potentials with superior quality and performance.

Sustainable

• Minimal environmental impact
• Less sludge
• Less water
• No heating = energy savings 
  

Efficient

• Major cost savings
• Less energy
• Less maintenance
• Higher productivity for existing lines
• Lower investment cost for new lines
  

Easy

• Greater flexibility through broader operation window
• Simple control via standard process control
• Fewer control parameters
• Easy-to-handle on-line analytics
• Superior quality
• Simple to install
  

Fast

• Fewer process steps
• Shorter cycle time
• Shorter contact time
  

The BONDERITE M-PP Process (formerly AQUENCE)

Metal Pre-Treatment - Paint Process

BONDERITE M-PP Coating Chemicals is the brand name of Henkel Adhesives Technologies autodeposition process.

BONDERITE Metal Pre-Treatment Paint Process is a chemical coating used in a process where an organic polymeric emulsion chemically deposits on the surface of a clean metal substrate. BONDERITE Metal Pre-Treatment Paint Process (BONDERITE M-PP) is known as the "simple solution" because it reduces the number and complexity of stages involved in painting parts:

Resources for Surface Treatments for Automotive Manufacturing

Brochure: Innovative and Sustainable Pretreatment Coatings for Lightweight Constructions

Brochure: Liquid Gasket Adhesion Promoter