New spray painting system

Citation

(2000), "New spray painting system", Industrial Robot, Vol. 27 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2000.04927ead.001

New spray painting system

New spray painting system

Keywords Painting, Spraying, Robots

Affordable Automation Ltd has recently developed a brand new spray painting system, featuring the new Stäubli RX Paint Robot.

The most important considerations when automating paint spraying applications are usually cost reduction and employee safety. The new Stäubli RX Paint Robot system addresses both these concerns, being specially developed for explosive or hazardous environments, and is CENELEC certificated for gas, dust and fibre. The actual payback period for this system in terms of reduced wastage, increased productivity and profitability is on average 18 months.

It was also developed for applications where accuracy is essential and can be used for spraying objects as large as car bumpers or as small as mobile phones. It has an IP65 rating, giving a high level of ingress and egress protection, making it suitable for clean room environments as it will not contaminate materials during spraying.

This robotic system gives the operator unrivalled control over the spray trajectory by Stäubli's unique V-Paint software, which automatically detects and suppresses dynamic trajectory errors (see Plate 1). The V-Paint software divides the spray into a series of tiny segments, each of which can be controlled individually using simple pull down screens.

Plate 1 New Stäubli painting robot

The spraying segments can last as little as half a second in reality, yet the software allows the operator to control all the parameters within each segment, such as the jet width, the speed and material flow, the fan width and atomising pressure. By controlling the spray trajectory and jet, the robotic system reduces waste caused by over-spraying, yet still guarantees the required quality of finish on the painted item. The robot can also be supplied with several different spray heads for different colours in the spraying process. In addition Affordable Automation Ltd has assisted in creating a software package which enables the robot to recognise several different products on the same production line and spray them within the same process.

Affordable Automation's Sales and Marketing Manager, Les Corps, believes that the new system will revolutionise the way in which spray painting is achieved in the UK. "The control that this robot gives over the spray jet is a vast improvement on other spraying robots available. We have tested this system and are confident that it will deliver a higher quality finish with a very short payback time."

In the often hostile environment of spray painting with its inherent hazards to the work force, automation adapted to these working conditions can only represent true progress.