International. With Auroom, BASF's coatings division introduces a digital platform that allows OEM designers to access a color database of photorealistic virtual cars.
BASF's virtual colours capture all facets of automotive coatings, including lightness flop, colour flop and gloss. By mapping these colors onto car models, OEM designers can paint virtually every color proposal and get realistic color prints and effects on an entire car, already in an initial design phase.
BASF says Auroom will be a valuable tool for OEM designers to speed up and refine the overall color design process, as they no longer rely solely on physical samples that need to be painted and shipped. Auroom provides other innovative features, such as real-time side-by-side comparison of different color tones from the same group to facilitate the correct color choice.
"Automotive coatings are highly complex colors with texture, color position, and surface that define the overall impression. To easily understand the impact of these color parameters on a 3-D shape, digitized colors allow the user to see this in their individual models," said Mark Gutjahr, Head of Automotive Color Design EMEA in BASF's coatings division. Working together with almost every car manufacturer on the market, BASF currently produces more than 600 colours in Europe with new colours in constant design. Cameras will now scan this massive wallet. The huge amount of appearance data generated during the scan is processed using a sophisticated mathematical model, while BASF's colorimetric knowledge helps to ensure its authenticity. OEMs can access the full color data on the Auroom platform and render it in different 3D shapes provided by the platform or CAD shapes of their own models.
"Digitalization is an important issue, especially in the automotive industry. We have a lot of experience creating colors in our labs, and now we can digitize them and create photorealistic digital reproductions. For our customers, it means that the color decision process will be easier, faster and much more effective. They can also use the data for their own brand-specific car configurators, so that car buyers can experience the car's colours in all its variety, which supports their purchase decision," said Krzysztof Patryk Stolarzewicz, Global Strategic Marketing Director in BASF's coatings division.
