Digitalization is omnipresent in today’s world. There aren’t many things we do today that aren’t digital, and the same goes for the color process in vehicle refinishes. What started with the micro-film in the 60s and color data punch cards in the 70s has become a fully digital color process featuring cloud-based color retrieval applications and digital color measurement tools to drive repair efficiency, decrease process times and reduce paint waste.

In this fourth episode of our Automotive Insights: Refinish podcast, our host Graham Threlfall, Global Key Account Manager, AkzoNobel is joined by Martijn Steggink, Global Color Tools Manager, AkzoNobel to dive into the ever-changing world of color matching. To keep up with the pace of new colors being introduced to the market by OEMs, bodyshops need to find an efficient way to repair vehicles back to showroom condition in the shortest time possible. Digitalization helps by providing real time color information through the cloud, to body shops.

Looking back at how coatings manufacturers supplied color information to bodyshops in the past, Martijn states that “the amount of formulas were limited to what you can physically print into a book,” so with technological innovations that allowed storage of more data, more color formulas could be provided to bodyshops. He continues by saying “now we are in the era of cloud computing so we don’t have to worry about data capacity any longer”.

If you would like to understand how digitalization impacts the color process and how bodyshops can benefit from digital color tools, you don’t want to miss this episode. Listen to the podcast now!