BASF’s coatings laboratory relies
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18 January 2026 | Reading time: 4 minutes
Car manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers and suppliers are placing increasingly high demands on manufacturers of automotive paints. They expect high-quality paints and rapid response times when paint formulations need to be adjusted at short notice. Added to this are technological advances, a growing variety of coating options and dynamic market developments.
For manufacturers, this means:
- a more complex production process
- stricter requirements regarding quality and manufacturing processes
- fast response times
“The paint must be suited to the requirements of the paint shops – not the other way round.” – Susanne Richert, Site Development Project Manager at BASF in Münster
What is the Lean Lab for?
To respond quickly and flexibly to current and future market requirements, BASF has launched the state-of-the-art, modular ‘Lean Lab’ laboratory concept at its Münster site. The laboratory is designed for efficiency: in coatings development, BASF relies on processes based on the division of labour. At the same time, all manufacturing processes are digitally recorded and controlled: all work areas involved in sample production are networked via software. This enables BASF to coordinate the supply of raw materials centrally.
| At a glance: The BASF Lean Lab
• The laboratory offers the ideal conditions for responding even more quickly and flexibly to the growing demands of the automotive coatings market. • Using specialised software, BASF links all the integrated work areas where practical sample production takes place. This enables BASF to centrally coordinate and control the entire supply of raw materials. • Faster work processes: Raw materials are always available at their designated locations at the right time. • 300 Timmer double-diaphragm pumps ensure safe processes and high energy efficiency in paint production. |
How is paint development automated?
In the past, the development of paints involved a great deal of manual work: laboratory staff would use pipettes to manually add specific quantities of raw materials to the overall mixture in order to produce a paint. Today, this process is largely automated.
“The Lean Lab uses a laboratory dosing machine developed specifically for this purpose, which automates repetitive tasks.” – Alexander Küsener, Head of Automation and Digitalisation at the Lean Lab at BASF in Münster
This automatic dosing machine is unique in the coatings industry and was specially built by BASF in collaboration with the plant manufacturer FRICKE Dosing + Filling Systems from Minden for the laboratory in Münster.
| At a glance: The automatic paint dosing system at the BASF Lean Lab
• Twelve metres long • Weighs eight tonnes • Can produce standard formulations from several hundred fluid raw materials • Consistently high quality of the output mixture • More than 300 dosing points available – supplied by Timmer pumps |
In practical terms, this means that staff select a specific stored product on the machine; the system retrieves the corresponding recipe and automatically mixes the raw materials in the precise proportions. This ensures that the quality of the output mixture remains consistently high.
This automation is only made possible by our efficient double-diaphragm pumps: they form the heart of the dosing system and are essential to its operation.
This is because the central supply of raw materials to the more than 300 dosing points is handled by Timmer pumps. These pumps are used to convey, dose and regularly circulate the materials. BASF uses several hundred raw materials with different properties in the development of its coatings.
“The raw materials to be dosed vary greatly in terms of their flow behaviour and the wide range of viscosities. Without consistent pump performance, it is not possible to achieve dosing accurate to the gram” – Alexander Küsener, Head of Automation and Digitalisation at the Lean Lab at BASF in Münster
What makes Timmer double-diaphragm pumps stand out?
With Timmer pumps, BASF can handle almost any material. The pumps offer a range of benefits, such as their design, ease of use and energy efficiency.
The Timmer pump requires just 0.5 bar to start up and operates reliably from 1 bar. This leads to significant energy savings in the medium and long term, as less compressed air is required.
“High start-up pressure is basically like driving a car with the handbrake on – the result is high energy consumption and wear and tear. That’s why it should be as low as possible.” – Stefan Anstöter, Product Specialist at Timmer
At the same time, BASF is able to minimise the loss of raw materials during pipe flushing: the company can flush the entire system thoroughly using low pressure. This process is necessary to remove even the finest residues, such as small colour pigments, from the pipes.
Thanks to the low-residue cleaning provided by Timmer pumps, BASF saves costs, as some raw materials – such as complex speciality dyes – are very expensive to procure.
What makes Timmer pumps so reliable?
“As a rule, the diaphragm is the main wear part in a pump – just like the brake pads in a car,” says Stefan Anstöter, product specialist at Timmer.
To prevent this, all moving parts at the heart of the Timmer pump are made of ceramic combined with finely ground high-performance plastics. This includes the latching valve, which diverts the compressed air between the diaphragms, thereby ensuring the pump’s continuous delivery cycle. Thanks to the special material composition, this component is particularly wear-resistant, meaning that downtime for Timmer pumps is ruled out.
Efficiency and quality in paint development
The Lean Lab concept quickly delivered the desired results: thanks to the division of labour, the digital integration of process steps and the high-performance pump technologies incorporated into the automatic dosing machine, BASF was able to optimise the quality of the paint samples and use the resulting efficiencies to increase the speed of service for its customers.
“We were impressed by both the high product and dosing quality and the low maintenance and servicing requirements of Timmer’s pumps.” – Susanne Richert, Site Development Project Manager at BASF in Münster
In addition to our products, we were able to contribute the necessary technical expertise to the development process of the Lean Lab: at the Timmer site in Neuenkirchen, we trained BASF staff in the operation and maintenance of the pumps, whilst also providing them with specialist knowledge about the products.
“Our pumps are extremely easy to maintain and have a very simple design. No specialist expertise is required to dismantle them and perform maintenance.” – Stefan Anstöter, Product Specialist at Timmer
In addition, our experts continue to provide advice to the staff at the BASF Lean Lab on all matters relating to pumps and conveying technology.
Conclusion:
Innovation requires reliable components
At the BASF Lean Lab, our pumps demonstrate what they are capable of: maximum dosing accuracy with minimum energy consumption and maintenance requirements.
After all, highly automated and complex processes require technology that is 100 per cent reliable.
Whether for global corporations or small and medium-sized enterprises: we don’t just supply the pump, we also ensure process reliability.
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