Underbody Coating

UNDERBODY COATING

The term "Underbody coating" consists of two terms as UNDERBODY + COATING so the first thing that come our mind is-

What is coating?

" Coating is the covering material applied on the surface of the component, material of coating can be anything like Paper, Aluminium Foil, or Film"

OUTCOME OF COATING

• To increase the life of any component by protecting it from HARSH ENVIRONMENT CONDITIONS.
• Able to protect from Corrosion (An Electrochemical Phenomenon).
• Give Asthetic look to the component.
• Enhance the surface properties of the components with it's own material properties.

What is Underbody?

Generally underbody of a component is anything which is exposed to the environment but very difficult to reach (not physically accessible),but in the context of cars we call it as-

"Under-carriage" as shown in the given fig.

FIG-1 FIG-2

What is Underbody Coating?

Due to poor road conditions like Potholes, Dirt and Dust, Stone grits, Muddy-Water etc. our car's undercarriage which is exposed to these environment conditions is mostly prone to corrosion, so to prevent it from the damage we do under-body coating to enhance the life of undercarriage hence automatically increase the life of the components present in the undercarriage like transmission shafts, axle, casing of differential etc.

Additional benefits of underbody coating are as follows:

• Minimizes the sounds from underneath the car resulting a noiseless smooth driving experience.
• Protect the interior of the car from extereme temperatures from beneath the vehicle.
• Acts as a anti-chip material i.e. if any stone hits the exposed elements of the car from the ground, coating prevent the damage that can be potentially done by stone.
• Also act as water resistant, i.e. to protect the underneath elements of car by moisture and hence corrosion.

Different types of UnderBody Coating

1) Resin based underbody coating- It is generally consider as the best under-body coating for my car because it reduce road noise due to sound absorbing ability of Rubber and also it is easier to apply, used particularly in Salt exposer areas but there is one disadvantage if somehow moisture gets trapped inside the coating then it corrode internally and this coating will unable to protect from corrosion so we have to make sure that surface must be dry enough free from any contaminants before apply this kind of coating.

2) Wax based under-body coating- It acts as anti rust coating, due to its' moisture repelling tendency, suitable for mostly all surfaces but it can not be applied on top of the surfaces due to its' soft nature so we have to apply extra layer of coating on the wax coated surface, here we can care free about the moisture on the surface before coating.

3) Bitumen based underbody coating- It provides excellent protection against stone chip damage, corrosion and also have the ability to absorb sound just like resin underbody coating but it cannot be painted over the another coating unlike resin underbody coating.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF COATINGS

PROS	CONS
1- Provide layer of protection against harsh environment conditions.	Could not prevent corrosion if already there in a car.
2- Enhance the life of the components.	Give excellent performance in new car only.
3- Can be applied to damage area.	Adds extra weight to the vehicle if overly applied.
4- Multiple undercoating methods are available.	Undercoating itself have certain life conditions.
5- Help to reduce noise from inside.	Must be reapplied with a frequency of 3 to 5 years.