EP
Engineering Plastic Composite
TRL 9 · Mass productionThe foundation line: interior trim and base parts, proven in volume.
Compositer, advanced materials
칠하지 않고, 빚는다
Colour, structure and rigidity are formed together inside one mould. That deletes the paint shop from the process entirely: the largest single consumer of energy, carbon and capital in a vehicle plant.
Fig. 01 Section through a finished paint-free panel. Layers not to scale.
- One forming cell, no paint shop
0%
Paint and oven, as a share of total plant energyPress ≈ 8% · Assembly ≈ 8%0.0kg
Composite bonnet, against 7.6 kg in steelIncluding reinforcementCF 85-90
Combine Factor, Class-A without paint0★
Euro NCAP pedestrian head protectionKia PV5 bonnetSteel and paint had a hundred-year run.
Every body panel on the road is the output of four plants: press, body, paint, assembly. The third one is the problem, and it is the one nobody could remove, because a Class-A exterior had to be sprayed.
Four plants, in series
Press, weld, paint, assemble
- Paint and oven alone account for ~40% of total plant energy; press and assembly are ~8% each.
- Four to five stages of matched tooling before a panel exists.
- Paint and solvent bring VOC emissions and a permanent compliance burden.
- Fixed cost only recovers above roughly 100,000 units a year.
The default since the 1920s.
One cell, in one shot
Form, spray structure, press
- The paint stage is not optimised. It is deleted: no paint, no solvent, no oven.
- Single matched mould: up to 70% less tooling investment.
- Shuttle press and robot spray cell: 70-80% less line capital.
- Pays back from 40,000-60,000 units a year.
In Korean mass production since 2021.
Why the coating has to go on after forming — and what cracked before NEXKIN solved it — is the technology page’s story.
Four processes, collapsed into one forming cell.
A co-extruded sheet already carrying its colour is thermoformed to the tool, long glass fibre and PU are sprayed directly behind the skin, and one press step finishes the part.
- No painting
- No press
- No welding
Multi-layer sheet
Co-extruded PMMA / ABS over a structural core. The colour is already in the sheet.
Vacuum thermoforming
The skin is drawn onto the tool. Class-A gloss survives the forming step intact.
Long-fibre injection
Glass fibre 12.5-100 mm and PU sprayed directly behind the formed skin.
Press, foam and out
One press step raises the section, sets stiffness and integrates the hardware.
What used to be four separate stamping, welding and paint stages collapses into a single forming cell. The paint line, a vehicle plant’s single largest energy sink, disappears entirely.
Where does it pay back?
The cars that were never built are the ones below the volume threshold. Move the marker to your programme volume.
Steel press + paintPaint-free forming
Paint-free forming pays back, steel does not
Paint-free LFI composite is economical from 40,000-60,000 units a year. Steel press and paint needs at least 100,000 to recover its tooling and paint-shop fixed cost. This band is the market the process opens.
Curve shape is indicative. The crossover volumes are programme data: 40,000-60,000 for paint-free forming, 100,000 for steel press and paint, 200,000-300,000 for aluminium and injection.
Three platforms. One forming philosophy.
Li:ma
Large-Format Structural Composite
TRL 9 · Mass productionUD-Tape and honeycomb-core laminates for battery covers, underbody shields and FEM carriers.
- −45% weight
- 240 MPa
- 1.5 m² one-shot
- 100% recyclable
NEXKIN
Paint-Free Exterior Skin
TRL 3 · Growth engineMulti-layer co-extruded, in-line hard-coated colour sheet, thermoformed and structurally integrated in one shot. No paint shop required.
- 3-layer one-shot
- −70% CAPEX
- −40-50% energy
Proof of concept, in production
PV5 proved it. NEXKIN scales it.
The Kia PV5’s paint-free high-gloss bonnet is the receipt: a smaller hood that earns a Euro NCAP 4-star pedestrian rating where the steel one could not, at 5.2 kg against 7.6 kg, with the paint shop out of the loop. Durability is verified under the conditions that kill paint.
See the NEXKIN technologyWhere it is in service.
What is already shipping.
0.15mm
Continuous ultra-thin unidirectional tapeFibre-dispersion technology1,500mm
Co-extruded PMMA / ABS colour sheet, web widthThe skin every paint-free panel starts asThe deployed scale — the pipe in the ground, the containers on the rail — is documented on the applications page, and the inline vision inspection behind these figures on the technology page.
Two platforms already pay for the third.
EP and Li:ma are in mass production and funding the work. NEXKIN is the growth engine, and the exterior is the largest surface steel still owns.
+132.9%
Revenue growth, 2025Second consecutive profitable year · Li:ma alone +134% in 20242021
First mass production: Li:ma back beam enters the Hyundai pipeline
2023
PV5 paint-free bonnet in production
2024-25
Li:ma battery covers at full revenue scale, revenue +134% YoY
2026 →Now
Series A, OEM qualification, NEXKIN mass-production line build-out
Next
Bring us a part, and we will tell you what it weighs in composite.
The configurator returns a simulated comparison against painted steel in the browser, then hands off to our engineering team as a structured RFQ. For programme, investment or press enquiries, talk to the team directly.