Centre for Special and Individual Paintwork: A special touch in series production – AutoMart Canada

Dingolfing. A new Centre for Special and Individual
Paintwork is about to be built at BMW Group Plant Dingolfing. Over the
next two years, an investment of more than 30 million euros will
enable a new, southern extension to the existing paintshop.
Construction will commence in September 2025, with the new facility
scheduled to go on stream in the spring of 2027.

The forthcoming extension will offer over 2,000 square metres of
space across two levels for adding customers’ desired finishes and
special paintwork options to even more cars in ever more efficient
processes. “It will enable us to meet the growing wishes of customers
for something special, and help us develop a lucrative area of
business for the BMW Group,” says Plant Director Christoph Schröder.

The paintshop at Dingolfing already offers a particularly wide array
of colours, paint types and customisation options, with up to 300
different shades for customers to choose from – plus the two-tone and
complex special finishes available for exclusive small series such as
the BMW 3.0 CSL or BMW M4 CS Edition VR46.

A defining feature of this area of manufacturing is always the
combination of automated processes in series production with
individual elements of manual painting. According to Sven Selaskowki,
responsible for Painted Bodies at Plant Dingolfing, the new paintline
in the forthcoming extension will be equipped to enable exactly that:
the first coat of coloured paint will be applied automatically in
series production, with special touches – such as stripes or contrast
colours on the doors and body for two-tone or custom finishes – added
by hand afterwards in the forthcoming extension. Bodies will then
return to the series production line for a final coat of clear varnish.

Depending on demand and the number of units needed, the team in the
new centre for special paint finishes will comprise upwards of ten people.

Throughput times will fall by about a quarter compared to the current
process, and costs per body made will fall noticeably. The drying
furnaces in the new extension will run on electricity rather than gas
– via power-to-heat.