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BUSINESS
Toyota works on greener paint process
TOYOTA, Japan -- Toyota's Tsutsumi plant has solar panels, grass growing on the roof and ivy crawling on walls to be as green in production as the Japanese automaker's reputation for mileage is exemplified in its Prius hybrid.
Under Toyota Motor Corp.'s latest drive to make its famous lean production even leaner, it has also achieved a breakthrough in technology for painting vehicles, a senior executive said recently.
The multistep paint job, which includes pretreatment, several coatings, drying and sealing, takes up 24 percent of energy use in manufacturing, according to Toyota.
Takeshi Uchiyamada, the executive overseeing production, said the new method called "3-Wet" dropped one "drying oven" step from the previous three.
The elimination in the multistep process was able to reduce by 15 percent the energy needs compared to old-style painting.
"Our production has grown over the last decade so much the energy required to manufacture each and every vehicle has also grown considerable overall," Uchiyamada told The Associated Press recently.
Ford Motor Co. has said it has developed similar ecological painting technology.
Uchiyamada said other energy-reducing innovations in manufacturing, such as shaping parts more speedily and introducing smaller robots, are also being tested at Toyota.
"We are making hybrids, plug-ins, vehicles that are friendly to the environment. That means we have to remain friendly to the environment in manufacturing them," he said.
The abbreviated paint job can't be used for Lexus luxury models, which boast multiple finishes.
Toyota already has other measures to be green. The solar panels at its Tsutsumi plant add up in size to the equivalent of 60 tennis courts, producing enough electricity to power 500 homes. That reduces 740 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions, or equal to 1,500 barrels of crude, according to Toyota.
Toyota also uses simple toylike measures to slash energy needs -- scooting along parts with pulleys and springs, tapping into excess energy from nearby machinery, reusing grease and other shop-floor ideas to scrimp and save.
Yasuaki Iwamoto, analyst at Okasan Securities, said efficient production was a plus both as cost cuts and an image boost.
"It makes sense to grow fuel-efficient, and getting exposure is good for company image," he said.
