Development of Pre-Painted Aluminized Steel Sheet for Automotive Mufflers

A new pre-painted aluminized steel sheet has been developed for the automotive muffler market. The product utilizes pre-painted aluminized steel sheet coated with an epoxy primer as the base, followed by a silicone-modified polyester resin top coat containing aluminum powder. The coating exhibits high heat resistance with respect to the adhesion qualities of the coated surface and excellent corrosion resistance to exhaust gas condensates. The long-term corrosion tests performed on actual vehicles have demonstrated that pre-painted aluminized steel sheet mufflers resist corrosion. The mufflers fabricated. with pre-painted aluminized steel sheet that have been commercialized on the basis of these results have exhibited significantly improved corrosion resistance.