What is paint protection film?
Car paint protection film is a high-performance new environmentally friendly film. It is a transparent and highly resilient material that tightly adheres to the surface of the car paint, like putting a layer of transparent "protective clothing" on the car.
From the appearance, due to its transparency, it hardly changes the original color and luster of the car, so it is called the "invisible" car wrap.
It was first applied in the military field, mainly to protect the propellers of helicopters and some key parts of aircraft, preventing them from being damaged by factors such as wind, sand, rain, and corrosive substances. Later, with the development of material technology and the reduction of costs, this protective film gradually applied to the field of civilian automobiles.
The function of paint protection film
1. Anti scratch
During daily driving, cars are easily subject to various scratches. For example, when opening a door in a narrow parking lot, the doors of adjacent vehicles may accidentally bump into one's own car; Or when passing through roads with dense branches, the branches may also leave scratches on the car body. The paint protection film can effectively prevent these minor scratches from damaging the car paint.
Its material has good elasticity and self-healing ability. For some shallow scratches, under certain temperature conditions (such as sunlight exposure), the car cover can automatically restore its original state, keeping the surface of the vehicle smooth at all times.
2. Anti corrosion
Cars come into contact with various corrosive substances during operation. For example, bird droppings contain acidic components that can corrode the surface of car paint if left on for a long time; Asphalt, tree sap, and other substances on the road can also cause chemical corrosion to car paint. The paint protection film can serve as an isolation layer to prevent these corrosive substances from directly contacting the car paint, effectively protecting the integrity of the car paint.
Especially in coastal areas, the air contains a high amount of salt. Salt easily condenses into small water droplets on the surface of cars, which can corrode the paint. Paint protection film can greatly reduce the risk of corrosion and extend the service life of car paint.
3. Antioxidant and UV resistant
Ultraviolet radiation is one of the main causes of car paint aging and fading. Long term exposure to sunlight can damage the molecular structure of car paint, causing the color to gradually fade and the glossiness to decrease. The paint protection film can block most of the ultraviolet rays and prevent the car paint from undergoing oxidation reactions due to ultraviolet radiation.
It's like a layer of sunscreen, protecting the color of the car paint from lasting like new. After experimental comparison, it was found that vehicles with invisible car covers had a significantly lower degree of paint fading after the same amount of outdoor exposure.
4. Improve the aesthetic appearance of vehicles
Paint protection film can increase the glossiness of car paint. Its surface is smooth, and when light shines on it, it produces better reflection effects, making the vehicle look more shiny. This is an important advantage for some high-end luxury cars or car owners who are concerned about the appearance of the vehicle.
Material structure and characteristics of paint protection film
The current mainstream structure of car clothing is: protective film+nano coating+substrate layer+adhesive layer+release film.
The top protective film protects the main film body during packaging and transportation, and the bottom release film protects the smoothness of the adhesive layer to ensure the installation effect. These two layers are peeled off before installation.
After actual installation, the middle three layers that protect the car paint are the nano coating, substrate layer, and adhesive layer. Nano coatings have a certain self-healing function, keeping the car clothes shiny and shiny at all times; The substrate layer is the core of car clothing, and the protective effect of car clothing mainly depends on the material used in the substrate layer; The adhesive layer is responsible for providing sufficient bonding force to ensure that the substrate layer adheres tightly to the car paint without causing damage to the car paint.
The substrate layer is the most crucial part of the paint protection film, and its quality determines the protection and durability of the car cover. The currently available substrate layer materials on the market include PVC, TPH, and TPU, each with their own characteristics.
PVC Material
PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) is a relatively traditional paint protection film material, commonly known as plastic. In the early development of civilian paint protection films, it successfully replaced the first generation PU paint protection film with stronger impact resistance and lower price. However, due to the hardness of plastic materials, their plasticity and toughness are poor, and their protective effect is limited. They are also prone to hardening, peeling, and even fracture, with a short lifespan. At present, PVC materials are rarely seen in the mainstream paint protection film market, and only a very small number of merchants are making them. Although the price is cheap, the cost-effectiveness is not high.
TPH Material
TPH adds some plasticizers on top of PVC to give it a certain degree of flexibility, making it an upgraded version of PVC. Therefore, the paint protection film made of TPH material is slightly more expensive compared to PVC. But its essence is still plastic, which cannot escape the limitations of material properties. Although both materials have a certain degree of hardness, wear resistance, and oil resistance, their ability to resist the environment is poor. High and low temperatures, as well as sunlight exposure, can affect their stability, leading to discoloration and aging.
TPU Material
TPU（Thermoplastic Polyurethanes）， It has a fundamental difference from the first two materials, it is not plastic. TPU is a type of polymer material that falls between rubber and plastic. It was first developed by Bayer AG in Germany in 1958.
TPU has excellent physical and mechanical properties, which can be plasticized by heating and solidified by cooling. TPU has both the high elasticity of rubber materials and the high strength of engineering plastics, with excellent comprehensive properties such as high strength, high toughness, high elasticity, chemical corrosion resistance, wear resistance, etc.
TPU film is a thin film made on the basis of TPU granular material through special processes such as rolling, casting, blowing, coating, etc., and finally used as TPU base film, widely used in the field of paint protection film. It has toughness and stability that the first two cannot match. High toughness enables it to effectively reduce damage to the car paint from collisions and scratches, while stability determines its resistance to high and low temperatures, corrosion, and yellowing.
Using imported TPU substrate, it has super strong anti scratch ability, which can effectively disperse and buffer external forces, prevent the car paint from being scratched by hard objects such as stone impact, tree branch scratching, etc., providing comprehensive protection for the car paint.
The car wrap forms a dense protective film, effectively resisting the erosion of corrosive substances such as rain, snow, bird droppings, tree trunks, insect corpses, and oil stains on the car paint. It can also prevent UV damage to the car paint, avoid paint fading and aging, and extend the service life of the car paint.
