COATING METHOD AND COATED ARTICLE OBTAINED BY THE SAME ( amended

A coating method for forming a multilayer coating film including at least one lower layer formed on a substrate and an uppermost layer formed on the lower layer, the coating method comprising the steps of:

• preparing a thermosetting coating material as an uppermost layer-coating material for forming the uppermost layer, wherein the thermosetting coating material has a curing temperature TT of 40° C. to 200° C. both inclusive and forms no volatile product in a curing reaction by a heat treatment, and preparing a lower layer-thermosetting coating material as at least one lower layer-coating material for forming the lower layer, wherein the lower layer-thermosetting coating material has a curing temperature TU that satisfies the following formula (1):
• TU≦TT−30 (1)
• (in the formula (1), TU represents a curing temperature ° C. of the lower layer-thermosetting coating material, and TT represents the curing temperature ° C. of the uppermost layer-thermosetting coating material);
• forming an uncured multilayer coating film by applying the lower layer-coating material and the uppermost layer-coating material on the substrate using a wet-on-wet technique;
• setting heating temperatures TL and TH that satisfy the following formula (2):
• TU−20≦TL≦TT−30 (2),
• and the following formula (3):
• TT−20≦TH≦TT+40 (3)
• (in the formulas (2) and (3), TL represents a temperature ° C. for low temperature heating, TH represents a temperature ° C. for high temperature heating, and TU and TT are the same as TU and TT in the formula (1));
• and
• forming a multilayer coating film including the uncured uppermost layer by subjecting the uncured multilayer coating film to the heat treatment at the temperature TL to thus cure at least the lower layer-thermosetting coating material, and then curing the uppermost layer-thermosetting coating material by subjecting the multilayer coating film including the uncured uppermost layer to the heat treatment at the temperature TH.

A coating method for forming a multilayer coating film including at least one lower layer formed on a substrate and an uppermost layer formed on the lower layer, the coating method comprising the steps of:

• preparing a curable coating material as an uppermost layer-coating material for forming the uppermost layer, wherein the curable coating material forms a cross-linked structure by a chemical reaction, and preparing a coating material as at least one lower layer-coating material for forming the lower layer, wherein the coating material has a relative loss elastic modulus of 1 s−2 or less when the uppermost layer-coating material starts to gel;
• forming an uncured multilayer coating film by applying the lower layer-coating material and the uppermost layer-coating material on the substrate using a wet-on-wet technique;
• and
• curing at least the uppermost layer-coating material by subjecting the uncured multilayer coating film to a curing treatment.