What's the news?
Audi has come up with 'partial matting' of painted body surfaces that will allow for personalisation of its cars in series production.
The new process sees a special powder roughen up the clear lacquer on the surface paint to a depth of a few thousandths of a millimetre. This then allows individual markings to become visible - meaning all manner of slogans and words can be 'etched' into the paintwork of Audis... providing no copyright infringement results from the chosen phrases, of course.
This means you can have your name or a favoured soundbite printed indelibly onto your car before it has even left the factory. And it's this ability to carry out the partial matting process during series production that Audi is most proud of, as Prof. Dr. Hubert Waltl, member of the board of management for production at Audi AG, explained: "The method of partial matting is an excellent example of the flexibility of our production. Being able to implement individualisation in normal series production is one of the aims of our smart factory."
Audi can mark any panel that's up to one metre square in size at the moment, with the template of the desired pattern placed on the component prior to its 'blasting' with a special powder that roughens up the surface to a depth that is more than ten times less than the thickness of a human hair.
The benefit of this process is longevity of the patterns, as production section head Mirko Endres added: "This form of individualisation is weather resistant, unlike conventional lettering and stickers, and it has a much more high-quality appearance."
Anything else?
The first models this partial matting will be available on are the R8 Coupe and Spyder twins, where you can have the side blades marked with whatever legend you choose through the Audi Exclusive individualisation programme. Further Audi vehicles will benefit from the process in the future.