Development of High-Quality Appearance Painting System for Motorcycle Fuel Tank

Abstract

For many years, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has been working on enhancing the appearance of the paint on the fuel tank, which is the “face” of a motorcycle. In 1988, the first high-quality appearance painting system for fuel tanks was introduced at the Hamamatsu Factory. It was a revolutionary product that enabled thick-film coating that surpassed normal limits. However, with the subsequent diversification of product specifications, it was confirmed that there were differences in the level of appearance quality depending on model and part. In 2008, when a new factory was constructed at Kumamoto in conjunction with the consolidation of domestic sites, we used a factor analysis of the issues related to the first generation system to undertake the development of (1) a sagging limit control system as an optimal coating method with enhanced shape followability by stopping on three sides, and (2) a drying oven. With the latter we worked on the development of a paint film shrinkage control system as an optimum paint film curing method by zone-specific environmental control. As a result, we succeeded in achieving the world’s top level fuel tank exterior painting.