Nissan has started putting the paint finishes it applies at its Sunderland factory through an accelerated weather test. This is not just a matter of letting body panels or completed cars stand outside in rain hammering down even more heavily than usual, but of installing a machine which creates extreme conditions on a compressed time scale.
For example, it has one electric-arc programme which produces the equivalent of 10 years' maximum sunlight exposure in 10 weeks. To simulate tropical conditions, it can hurl down rainstorms. There are extremes of ultra-violet light. Humidity? This place has it in bucketfuls. And not many cars will ever have to operate in temperatures like the maximum inside the chamber -63c.
The questions are: does the exterior paintwork stay in good general condition, and do the various shades and colours in the catalogue hold steady without fading?
Nissan sells to 60 national markets world-wide. It certainly makes sense to test the paint finishes in Timbuktu temperatures and Tail of the Bank rainfall.
ross Finlay
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