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Two-Tone Coating Without Overspray
BASF Coatings, together with the Renault Group and Dürr, has achieved a significant milestone for the future of automotive manufacturing: the “Overspray-Free Application process (OFLA)”, also known as “Jetprint” at Renault.
This joint innovation was honored in June 2025 with the Trophée de l’Industrie s’engage 2025 in the category Innovative Process during the L’industrie s’engage par l’Usine Nouvelle event. The process represents a technological shift in sustainable paint application, significantly reducing process costs and lead times for vehicle manufacturers—while also lowering environmental impact.
The “OFLA” process has been successfully implemented at Renault’s Maubeuge plant. It enables a novel integrated wet-on-wet application, applying two different color tones in a single pass during series production. BASF Coatings supplied a specially developed basecoat technology tailored to meet the performance, precision, and automation requirements of the process—while maintaining consistently high quality. The “EcoPaintJet Pro” applicator and Dürr’s robotic automation system ensure pinpoint-accurate, fully overspray-free coating, supported by precise sensor technology and coordinated software.
In conventional two-tone coating processes, vehicles must pass through the paint shop twice. This requires extensive manual masking and the use of large quantities of protective materials—a time- and resource-intensive procedure that generates significant waste and consumes a large amount of energy. “OFLA” revolutionizes this process through a high-precision, mist-free application method inspired by digital printing technology. It enables exact coating placement—such as contrasting colors on roofs or between A- and C-pillars—entirely without overspray. The process eliminates the need for masking materials and opens up new capacity for automated two-tone painting in automotive production.
“From BASF Coatings’ perspective ,OFLAʼ is a milestone in combining sustainability with industrial performance. The process stands for value-oriented efficiency that supports both environmental goals and the economic requirements of our customers,” explains Rachel Choo, Vice President Global Marketing Automotive OEM Coatings at BASF. “Compared to conventional spray applications with masking, ,OFLAʼ delivers measurable environmental and economic benefits: 100% paint transfer, up to 70% lower process costs, and 1.6 kg less waste per vehicle due to the elimination of masking materials. Energy consumption is reduced by up to 80%, along with CO₂-equivalent emissions,” adds Steffen Rohlmann, Project Lead in the Global Development Basecoat Team at BASF Coatings.
This award-winning collaboration between BASF Coatings and its partners illustrates how joint innovation can shape the coating technologies of the future and drive the sustainable transformation of the automotive industry. It also underscores the leading role of European manufacturers in defining new standards for efficiency and environmental responsibility. The innovative process not only offers greater design freedom and production efficiency but also sets new benchmarks for sustainable manufacturing in the automotive sector.
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