Engel’s Clearmelt Technology Eliminates Automotive Paint Lines, Directly Produces Self-Healing Class A Surfaces in Injection Molds

July 12, 2026

Plastics Today Austria

Overview

Engel has unveiled its Clearmelt process, an innovative polyurethane flooding technology that directly produces scratch-resistant, self-healing Class A surfaces for large automotive exterior parts within a single injection mold. This breakthrough eliminates conventional painting, coating, and polishing steps, drastically reducing manufacturing costs, defect rates, and environmental impact. The technology also enhances design freedom by enabling the direct integration of functional films for advanced driver-assistance systems and lighting.

In Depth

Background

The automotive industry faces significant pressure to reduce manufacturing costs, enhance production efficiency, and minimize environmental impact. Traditional automotive painting processes are a major bottleneck, contributing to high energy consumption, substantial volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, and considerable capital expenditure. With tightening environmental regulations and increasing demand for sustainability, a fundamental shift in automotive surface finishing is urgently needed. Engel’s Clearmelt technology addresses these challenges head-on, offering the potential to cut energy consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 60% compared to conventional painting, thus enabling more sustainable and cost-effective vehicle production.

Key Findings

Engel’s Clearmelt process represents a breakthrough in automotive surface finishing, leveraging in-mold polyurethane (PU) flooding technology to directly produce scratch-resistant, self-healing Class A surfaces for large automotive exterior components within a single injection molding tool. This innovative approach integrates injection molding with immediate PU layer application and curing, completely eliminating the need for conventional painting, coating, and polishing steps. The result is a dramatically simplified manufacturing process with significantly reduced defect rates, delivering the stringent surface quality demanded by automotive exteriors. Beyond operational efficiencies, Clearmelt enhances design freedom, enabling the direct integration of functional films for advanced applications such as LiDAR/radar transparency or integrated lighting elements—a critical capability for future smart and autonomous vehicle designs. Strategically, this technology promises a substantial reduction in manufacturing facility footprints, capital expenditures, and operational costs by removing entire paint lines. The inherent self-healing properties of the Class A surfaces also contribute to lower lifetime maintenance costs and improved customer satisfaction. This ability to embed advanced functional features directly into components positions Clearmelt as a transformative solution, poised to drive sustainability and innovation across the automotive supply chain towards more intelligent mobility.

Source: https://www.plasticstoday.com/automotive-and-mobility/engels-clearmelt-technology-eliminates-automotive-paint-lines

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