Various environmental impacts on the automotive coatings, acid rain etching in particular, have become a major concern for the automotive industry since the late 1980's. The problem has not only decreased the quality of the paint finish for the consumers, but has created significant cost implications for the car manufacturers as well when the coatings had to be repaired. Automakers and paint manufacturers have since explored various countermeasures, but failed to obtain required performances to protect automotive coatings by adopting any of the existing technologies.
Considering the effectiveness as a barrier and simplicity of application and removal, we have refined and optimized the adhesive tape technology, and successfully developed a transit film, the world's first adhesive film specifically designed to protect automotive coatings. In addition to the performance to protect automotive coatings, we believed that these transit films would eventually become industrial waste after consumers purchase vehicles, should have minimal environmental impact. In order to achieve this goal, we chose polyolefin type plastic film which is relatively easy to recycle and does not generate chlorinated organic or chlorine gas during the incineration process.
In this paper, we will discuss the fundamental requirements for transit films, and thereafter the advantages of a new transit film over the conventional technology along with known transit film technologies.