Mazda has developed Rhodium White Premium, a special paint colour “born from its unique Takuminuri painting technology”.
This new colour will be available this summer, predominantly for large product group models, starting with the CX-60.
“Mazda believes colour is a crucial part of what gives shape to a vehicle, and thus we are focusing efforts on developing colours that accentuate a dynamic and delicate expression via the Kodo – Soul of Motion design theme,” the automaker said.
“Rhodium White Premium is a pure white inspired by Japanese aesthetics finding beauty in simplicity and the absence of superfluous elements. Furthermore, the paint’s fine grain accentuates the shadows on the surface of the vehicle complimenting the metallic texture.”
The automaker said it was successfully mass producing an expressive colour using only three layers: a clear layer, a reflective layer and a colour layer. The colour layer provides a newly developed white pigment that delivers a silky smooth, fine grain white. As standard practice with white colored paints, the undercoat tends to show through and the clear coat is generally thicker than for other colors.
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However, Rhodium White Premium uses a newly developed pigment thanks to which Mazda was able to reduce the thickness of the colour layer by up to 30%. This also contributes to more efficient use of resources and a reduction of CO2 emissions during the production process.
For the reflective layer, a method in which paint containing ultra-thin, high luminance aluminum flakes is applied meticulously to achieve a uniform thickness and which then dramatically shrinks in volume during the drying process. Resulting in an extremely thin reflective layer down to approximately 0.5 microns or about 7% of the thickness of a typical reflective layer.
The company was able to achieve a hand painted like finish with the aluminum flakes smoothly aligned at regular intervals in the reflective layer. The entire surface gleams when exposed to light and displays a realistic metallic texture. Individual aluminum flakes are distributed evenly and parallel to the undulations of the body surface, producing a glossy and shaded appearance when hit by light despite the bright white colour.
