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Various environmental impacts on the automotive coatings, acid rain etching in particular, have become a major concern for the automotive industry since the late 1980's. The problem has not only decreased the quality of the paint finish for the consumers, but has created significant cost implications for the car manufacturers as well when the coatings had to be repaired. Automakers and paint manufacturers have since explored various countermeasures, but failed to obtain required performances to protect automotive coatings by adopting any of the existing technologies. Considering the effectiveness as a barrier and simplicity of application and removal, we have refined and optimized the adhesive tape technology, and successfully developed a transit film, the world's first adhesive film specifically designed to protect automotive coatings.

Coating black paint on the door sash of automobiles has been a separate process from the body coating. Recently, moany automotive manufacturers are switching this secondary coating process to adhesive tape technology for various advantages. These advantages include reduction of VOC (volatile organic carbon), rationalization of assembly process, cost reduction and so on. Since this application is considered a variation of exterior decal film, most of the commercially available products are currently based on PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) film. (See Photo 1.) The automotive industry has increasingly been sensitive to the use of PVC due to its potential environmental problems. One of the problems is that the product cannot be incinerated when disposed of since it generates hydrogen chloride gas, dioxin and other toxic chlorinated organic matters. Also, reportedly its plasticizer may act as an endocrine disruptor (also known as ‘an environmental hormone’) when dissolved in water.

Various environmental impacts negatively effect for the exteriors of newly manufactured vehicles. Among them, automotive window glass is a particularly vulnerable material. Small gravels that fly with strong wind of storms or hurricanes leaves damages on the glass that cannot be repaired, thus entire replacement is often necessary. It is a major economical threat for the automotive manufactures and dealers. Further more, replacement of the car window glass after shipment may be a concern for the perfection of water sealing. Accordingly, various protection measures were studied to protect car window glass during storage and transportation of automotives vehicles and trucks. However, none of them seem to give a comprehensive solution. Nitto Denko has thus developed a new adhesive film, which can effectively protect automotive window glass during transportation based on its high expertise in adhesive technology.