Robots point the way to full automation

Citation

(1998), "Robots point the way to full automation", Industrial Robot, Vol. 25 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1998.04925daf.003

Robots point the way to full automation

Robots point the way to full automation

Keywords Durr, Paints, Robots

The introduction by Durr of a family of purpose designed painting robots marks another step forward towards the fully automated paint shop for high volume automotive production.

"We now have all the elements in place to offer a total systems capability covering every aspect of the design of a vehicle body paint plant," says sales and marketing director Paul Anderson (see Plate 3).

"In future the human involvement in actual painting operations will focus more on supervisory tasks and process quality monitoring," he adds.

"Advanced computer control systems such as the Durr Ecopaint Screen provide feedback and enable the operators to observe and tune the paint process for optimum throughput, performance and quality. And these systems will be fully integrated with the manufacturing planning schedule, using the automation to batch different body colour requirements to reduce waste.

Plate 3 Coating film checks via ROBCAD paint

"Environmental considerations are also important. Future plant will build on current practice for achieving maximum energy efficiency by design. Raw materials, air and water resources are all recycled, not only for economy, but also to reduce waste in terms of both effluent discharges and exhaust emissions."

The paint application and drying process require large amounts of air at controlled pressures, flow rates and temperatures. Fresh air enters the plant via a heat exchanger arrangement which recovers a large proportion of the heat contained by the air being exhausted from the plant.

The use of robots also simplifies the requirement for air ventilation within the spray booths. As well as being reduced in size, they can be supplied with untreated recirculating air, giving further opportunities for reducing costs. Solvent contaminated air is finally exhausted from the plant after purification in a high temperature incineration process. And the heat from this process is used to heat fresh air supplies for the curing ovens.