The diversity of metals used in today’s vehicles is accelerating to meet automotive lightweighting needs. Robust body, paint, and trim shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, seal and protect these mixed materials while ensuring safety, long-term durability, and performance.
By 2030
Light vehicles produced.
*Source: IHS
In 2023
Estimated size of the body-in-white market.
*Source: Mordor Intelligence Industry Report "Automotive Body-in-White Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2023 - 2028)"
CAGR of EV'21-'28
With new body designs requiring lightweight and crash durable solutions
*Source: IHS
Henkel pioneers automotive solutions, focusing on sustainability, eMobility, lightweighting, safety, and comfort. Our innovations significantly reduce carbon footprint while enhancing performance, catering to electric vehicle needs with reliable technologies. Lightweighting solutions optimize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. Safety remains a priority, with our adhesives contributing to stronger vehicle structures.
Henkel's commitment to sustainability drives our innovations, reshaping the automotive landscape towards a greener and more responsible future.
- Body shop
- Paint shop
- Trim shop
Anti-flutter foam helps limit the movement of the outer panels, while high damping foam eliminates the need for a bitumen pad and further dampens the movement of the exterior panels. Our ultra-soft anti-flutter material is used to ensure the avoidance of adhesive read-through to improve the overall quality of the application.
Structural inserts consist of both the structural foam as well as a plastic or metal carrier. It is applied through injection molding and is based on an epoxy chemistry. The structural epoxy foam expands in the e-coat oven to create a stiff connection between the new structure and the body-in-white.
Baffles consist of heat-reactive sealers applied to a nylon or steel carrier, which is precisely positioned. The sealer material then expands with exposure to heat in the paint shop bake ovens, forming a complete seal of the cavity cross sections where they are applied.
Typical application areas for structural tapes include window frames, pillar to roof, pillar to rocker, rocker and rail sections, hoods, fenders, and body side outers.
Includes 2D Tapes, Pillar filler, and Baffles that come in customized shapes and help reduce noise, vibration and harshness and increase passenger comfort.
Body shop sealers prevent sound, water, dust, and air from entering the vehicle. They are available in pumpable and extruded forms as weld through seam sealer or for non-weldable application areas. Provides wash-off resistance, high elasticity, corrosion resistance, and is available with or without expansion.
Epoxy structural adhesives are among the most versatile, bonding easily to many substrates and offering a wide range of properties that ensure excellent shear strength in permanent bonding applications. Acrylic adhesives for structural bonding are specially designed for long-term bonding on virtually all surfaces. Polyurethane structural adhesives bond a variety of different substrates such as plastic, metal, and wood.
Extruded application on metal panels: Doors, hoods, fenders, and body side outers.
Sprayable: All skin panels, floor panels, pillars, and apron member.
Advanced technologies for the automotive body-in-white help reduce vehicle weight while improving performance with environmentally friendly solutions and processes. Advanced chemistry solutions allow long-term durability and performance across crash resistance, noise vibration, corrosion, and protection from external elements.
Zinc phosphate conversion coating is a trusted process designed to prepare metal surfaces for painting. There are three main steps in the pretreatment of metals with a zinc phosphate conversion coating:
- Cleaning and activating of the metal surface
- Application of the conversion layer
- Sealing/post-passivation
The process coats the metal surface with a polycrystalline structure that provides excellent adhesion and offers superior corrosion protection.
Spray-on sound deadening materials combine easy and quick application with effective noise reduction in areas such as vehicle doors, roofs, and floor assemblies/ LASD contributes to weight reduction by replacing heavier bitumen pads and are applied through spray application for increased precision, speed, and improved cleanliness, while removing the need for tooling or part design.
Thin layered underbody coatings help reduce material consumption, while meeting performance requirements at the lower thickness.Tested for: Viscosity, hardness, weather performance, corrosion, chipping/impact protection, sealing ability.
Developed for application on e-coated substrates, Henkel’s paint shop sealants & coatings ensure airtight and watertight sealing to all seam joints, enhancing corrosion protection, reducing noise and providing surface finish protection.
Due to the different surface properties of steel and aluminum body components, the Bonderite Two-Step process pre-treats them in two separate stages.This allows more aluminum to be used, while reducing the disadvantages of the current process - i.e. energy and chemical use decrease during the production process. Servicing expenses, the associated downtime, and waste volumes are also reduced.
A traditional zinc phosphating process comprises seven steps: cleaning, rinse, conditioner/activator, phosphating at 55°C, rinse, post-rinse, and DI rinse. By using Henkel's zirconium based TecTalis Thin-Film Process, however, this can be reduced to just four steps: cleaning, water rinse/DI rinse, thin-film conversion coating, and a final DI rinse.
As the body-in-white leaves the body shop, it is pretreated for corrosion prevention, sanded, and sealed. Highly efficient industrial surface treatments, sealants, and coatings protect vehicles from environmental elements and enhance paintability while reducing noise and maximizing passenger comfort.
Achieve weight savings and faster tack times with primerless application on paint and glass using our PU adhesive portfolio. Ensure proper assembly of glass and adjacent components, with efficient manufacturing through high-position tack, primerless, and high-modulus solutions. Benefit from weight savings with our low-density PU range.
The final assembly processes in the trim shop include fitting of dashboards, windshield setting and window glazing.
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