The EcoPaintJet Pro painting process of Dürr has been awarded in the “Sustainability” category.
The German company Dürr has been honoured with the BMW Group Supplier Innovation Award in the “Sustainability” category for its EcoPaintJet Pro painting process. The BMW Group is the first car manufacturer in the world to employ this technology in series production at its Leipzig (Germany) plant.
EcoPaintJet Pro enables the efficient two-tone painting of cars – producing razor-sharp lines fully automatically and without any overspray and masking. The BMW Group is using it to provide the roof of the Mini Countryman with its characteristic contrasting colour. The centrepiece of Dürr’s robot-based high-tech system is a special applicator that applies the paint with absolute precision in parallel lines rather than atomizing it in the conventional way. The applicator is equipped with a nozzle plate containing fifty virtually invisible holes, each with a diameter of one tenth of a millimetre, that allow to apply the coatings from 30 mm without generating any overspray at all and thus without any material loss.
“Every good innovation needs good partners on the customer side who can see the potential. The BMW Group is such a partner. With the overspray-free process we have revolutionized series painting together,” has declared Jochen Weyrauch, the CEO of Dürr AG, when accepting the award in Munich.
Dürr has already received the BMW Group Supplier Innovation Award in the past: the mechanical and plant engineering firm was recognised in 2011 for its energy-efficient EcoDryScrubber technology aimed at the dry separation of overspray.
“Now, with the EcoPaintJet Pro, we have achieved another giant leap in innovation: The first award was about better overspray separation, whereas this time we have eliminated the overspray altogether,” has concluded Weyrauch.