Mazda today announced the successful launch of the newly developed Aqua-tech Paint System for vehicle body painting at its Ujina Plant No.1 in Japan. The innovative new technology achieves the world’s highest standards for limiting emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) contained in paint as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) gas generated from the energy consumed during the vehicle painting process. The Aqua-tech Paint System maintains the same world-class low CO2 emissions volume as the Three Layer Wet Paint System — Mazda’s paint system currently installed at all of its production facilities in Japan — and reduces VOC emissions by a further 57 percent. At only 15 grams per square meter of vehicle body surface, the extremely low VOC emissions volume makes Aqua-tech the least polluting water-based paint system in the world. The new system also delivers improved paint quality.

The Mazda Aqua-tech technology includes the introduction of an improved paint shop air conditioning system and a new, highly efficient evaporation system that removes the water contained in the paint. Mazda has managed to consolidate the coating processes by developing highly functional top coat paints that exhibit additional properties usually provided by the primer paint. These include brightness, durability and resistance to chipping and light damage. As a result of these technical breakthroughs, Mazda’s Aqua-tech achieves extremely low VOC emissions without increasing CO2 volume.