With the launch of CX-60 and CX-90, Mazda developed two new special paint colours from our unique TAKUMINURI painting technology that reproduces a precise, high-quality paint finish as if done by the hands of a skilled craftsman on an automobile mass-production line.
Rhodium White Premium for CX-60 and Artisan Red Premium for CX-90 are the third and fourth colours following Soul Red Crystal and Machine Grey Premium.
Rhodium White Premium is a pure white inspired by Japanese aesthetics, finding beauty in simplicity and the absence of superfluous elements. Furthermore, the paint’s fine grain accentuates the shadows on the surface of the vehicle complimenting the metallic texture of Rhodium White Premium.
Developing Rhodium White Premium, Mazda was able to take TAKUMINURI to new heights, successfully mass producing an expressive finish using only three layers: a clear layer, a reflective layer and the coloured layer. This coloured layer provides a newly developed white pigment that delivers a silky smooth, fine-grain white. As standard practice with white paints, the undercoat tends to show through, and the clear coat is generally thicker than for other tonalities. Rhodium White Premium however, uses a newly developed pigment thanks to which Mazda was able to reduce the thickness of the clear coat by up to 30 percent (compared to Snowflake White Pearl Mica). This contributes to a more efficient use of resources and a reduction of CO2 emissions during the production process.
Artisan Red Premium conveys the connotation of a red colour created by skilled artisans. This extraordinary red produced by Mazda designers, engineers and other artisans manifests a mature outlook that is more refined and sophisticated than previous special colours. The concept underlying design was to create the red found in a mature wine made with unsurpassed craftsmanship. Artisan Red Premium accentuates the strength and beauty of form that takes shape as highlights hit by light portray a fine-grained transparent red shining brightly and dominant shade produces a profound depth and richness, rendering high contrast.
Artisan Red Premium is comprised of three layers: a clear layer, translucent paint layer, and a reflective/absorptive layer. It combines an outstanding aesthetic appearance with a reduced environmental footprint. For the translucent paint layer, a high-chroma pigment is employed that people perceive to be the reddest of reds, a pigment also used for the Soul Red Crystal. For the reflective/absorptive layer, we applied a technology that more smoothly aligns aluminium flakes at regular intervals. This was also leveraged for the third Takuminuri colour Rhodium White Premium. In addition, we improved on the jet-black pigment, which renders shade in the second colour Machine Gray. This combination of technologies developed over a decade conveys brightness in highlights produced by strong reflection and the richness of shades created as light is soundly absorbed so as to achieve a balance between transparency and a mature profoundness.
Mazda TAKUMINURI process uses a method in which paint containing ultra-thin, high luminance aluminum flakes are applied meticulously to achieve a uniform thickness and which then dramatically shrink in volume during the drying process for the reflective layer. The result is an extremely thin reflective layer of approximately 0.5 microns or about 7% of the thickness of a typical reflective layer.
Moreover, Mazda was able to achieve a hand-painted like finish with the aluminum flakes smoothly aligned at regular intervals in the reflective layer. The entire surface gleams when exposed to light and displays a realistic metallic texture. Individual aluminum flakes are distributed evenly and parallel to the undulation of the body surface, producing a glossy and shaded appearance when touched by light.
