Nissan Develops Color Changing Paint for Vehicles

[Unknown Soldier]

Nissan is truly doing wonderful things in the automotive arena. The company recently unveiled its highly-anticipated 2009 GT-R. The vehicle pumps out an impressive 473 HP and an equally impressive 434 lb-ft of twist from its twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 engine.

Now that development is winding down for what is likely Nissan's most advanced road car ever, the Japanese-based company is turning its attention to more "mundane" matters when it comes to choosing a vehicle: color.

Choosing a color when purchasing a new vehicle can be a gut-wrenching endeavor. Many cars look good in black, but the color is a pain to keep clean. Silver often best shows off the curves of a vehicle, but everyone chooses silver these days. Pick a color like beige, and you'll blend in with the rest of the anonymous Toyota Camrys darting in and out of traffic with the right blinker still on.

Nissan hopes to give car buyers the ability to choose whatever color they like for their vehicle -- at any time. Nissan has developed what it calls a "paramagnetic" paint coating -- a unique polymer layer which features iron oxide particles is applied to the vehicle body. When an electric current is applied to the polymer layer, the crystals in the polymer are then interpreted by the human eye as different colors.

Depending on the level of current and the spacing of the crystals, a wide gamut of colors can be selected by the driver. However, since a steady current is needed to maintain the color effect, the paramagnetic paint doesn't work when the vehicle is turned off -- instead, the vehicle would revert back to a default white color.

If you may recall, Ford offered a similar paint option on its mid-90s Mustang GT and Cobra (Mystic) and 2004 Mustang Cobras (Mystychrome). In both cases, the vehicle appeared to be either green or purple depending on the viewing angle.

Nissan is hard at work on the paramagnetic paint and hopes to have it on production vehicles by 2010.

Paramagnetic paint isn't the first time that Nissan had ventured into ways to improve paint technology. The company also developed a self-healing "Scratch Guard Coat" to apply vehicle paint. Thanks to the advanced coating, vehicle are nearly impervious to superficial scratches caused by carwash brushes, fingernails or other minor surface scratches.

Any scratches that are made on the vehicle are "healed" within one day to a week depending on the depth of the scratch.

Nissan's Scratch Guard Coat is currently available on the 2008 Infiniti EX35 luxury crossover utility vehicle.

News Source: DailyTech

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Thought this was pretty news worthy so posted it here.

Would be kewl if the paint actually heals it self never mind the colour changing aspect.

US

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Didnt nissan had some special self repairing paint on the new skyline already?

I wonder if this is actually allowed btw, in the netherlands you have to put the color of the car on the ownership paper but if you can change it into anything you want there will be a problem.

 

[AlNom]

Just one step towards active camouflage (invisibility)

 

[digitalwanderer]

Is it NEE-san or nih-SON?

 

[AlNom]

I say it with the former pronunciation.

Like... Knee-saun (sauna)

 

[INKster]

Just one step towards active camouflage (invisibility)

Who said Aston Martin wasn't ahead of the times ?
Even 007 knew that, so Nissan can now consider themselves merely second-runners.

 

[Davros]

does anyone remember global hypercolour T-shirts ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercolor

 

[AlphaWolf]

does anyone remember global hypercolour T-shirts ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercolor

ya, if this paint isn't more durable than those shirts were, its a complete waste.

 

[INKster]

ya, if this paint isn't more durable than those shirts were, its a complete waste.

"Paramagnetic iron oxide particles".

So Nissan now has new cars with actual rust coming straight from the factory...

 

[digitalwanderer]

Yes, but it's fancy high-tech rust!

 

[pcchen]

Is it NEE-san or nih-SON?

To my understanding, the latter one is closer to the Japanese pronunciation. However, many Japanese brands do have different pronunciations in the USA

 

[Npl]

This could be very usefull if you apply that paint to your number plate. One step closer to the "perfect crime", I knew I wouldnt have to work for all my life.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Ok, it was a trick question. It's NEE-san in the US, nih-SON everywhere else.

I say "nih-SON" and "coop-AY", for the record. It annoys people.

 

[RussSchultz]

I can see why.

p.s. The japanese don't accent either syllable, by the way.

Also, I'm not sure they have a 'nih' sound (the 'n' series of sounds has nah-knee-nu-nay-no as its vowel combinations. nihon means "japan" and its pronounced "knee-han", with the syllables of equal length/accent. "nihongo" means japanese, and that's "knee-han-go". I assume nissan is pronounced knee-san.

At least that's what a semester of Japanese in college tricks me into believing.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Baka!

(That's what years of anime have taught me of japanese. )

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

Also, I'm not sure they have a 'nih' sound (the 'n' series of sounds has nah-knee-nu-nay-no as its vowel combinations. nihon means "japan" and its pronounced "knee-han", with the syllables of equal length/accent. "nihongo" means japanese, and that's "knee-han-go". I assume nissan is pronounced knee-san.

Ummm... not "han". The "o" sound in Japanese is kind of more like the "oa" in "boat" or the "ow" in "own". So it's more like knee-hone if you wanted to use English equivalents (though the pronunciation of the "o" would still be slightly off if you used that).
Also, when you have the analogy of "knee", it becomes difficult to differentiate between "ni" and "nii."

For instance "nii-san" would be elder brother (could also be used among strangers to refer to young men), while "ni-san" would mean "two or three [of something]." "Nissan" I think is a contraction "nichi" from Nippon(Japan) and "san" from sangyo(industry). I think if you read it literally it would mean a day's production output. And the pronunciation would be more like "knee-ssan." Because of the lengthened "s", it sort of sounds like the latter syllable is stressed, but it really isn't.

On a not-entirely-related note, Mazda in Japan is pronounced according to the name of its founder, and is hence spelled and pronounced "Matsuda."