MacDermid Autotype

A global industrial manufacturer of high quality precision coated films and blended liquids for use in the printing, automotive and electronics industries. Over 140 years of research and innovation our product range includes; overlay films for Membrane Touch Switches, stencil products, cleaning chemicals for screen printing, Film Insert Moulding (FIM) and graphic display films.

News & Events

Ingenious texturing lacquer brings automotive interior components to life

Date: 12/06/14

Aimed especially at automotive component designers, this new texturing lacquer range, Fototex 3D, enables the manufacture of fully formed 3D parts to feature highly customisable surface textures. Fototex 3D represents a significant technological breakthrough for manufacturers creating interior automotive parts such as HVAC units, buttons and functional trims by Film Insert Moulding.  The partnership of XtraForm with Fototex 3D combines high gloss finishes with textures and textured effects, a design solution previously difficult to achieve using alternative processes.


The new lacquer is applied as part of a normal screen printing process using a hybrid cure (solvent and UV) with very short drying times.  Unlike similar products Fototex 3D does not require 2-component hardening, reducing the production cycle further, yet offering outstanding levels of abrasion resistance to meet the highest demands of the automotive sector.


Because of its versatility and fine line print capability, intricate texturing patterns can easily be created aimed at enhancing haptic perception.  High transparency is a further feature of the new lacquer.  This enables designers to incorporate efficient backlit effects to components - a plus in the production of HVAC panels, for example.


Kevin O’Hara, Automotive Business Manager at MacDermid Autotype, comments: “With Fototex 3D we wanted to bring to the market a bespoke solution for high quality automotive component manufacturing, based on durability, strength, maximum versatility and simplicity of use.  Our aim is to enable product designers to free their imagination, inventing and launching complex 3D parts that are also enhanced by an almost infinite variety of surface finishes, yet within the simplest and therefore most cost effective manufacturing parameters.”

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