Achieving coating quality and consistency, together with the highest production efficiency and minimal downtime is the major issue facing companies who are coating complex 3D objects, as well as windows and doors.
The advantages of the automatic coating process
If, on the one hand, a manual coating process does not allow you to objectively quantify the consumption of coating products and the production capacity, in addition to not guaranteeing consistent finish quality, on the other hand, the automatic coating process of doors, windows and fixtures or complex three-dimensional objects allows you to promptly respond to the 4 main needs of our customers:
- Save time
- Improve coating quality where trajectories are complex
- Reduce paint consumption
- Increase productivity
The Robot will not completely replace manpower. For applications including coating windows, doors and three-dimensional objects such as disassembled chairs or musical instruments, the anthropomorphic spraying robot needs a person to control it and monitor process stages, while leaving the heaviest tasks for the robot to carry out. This allows users to minimise all the manual operations that are likely to create problems in terms of time requirements, paint consumption, and inconsistent quality and productivity.
Repeatability in the coating process of fixtures and three-dimensional objects with high-performance anthropomorphic robots guarantees consistent quality and lower product consumption. Finally, the robot's extremely high operating speed considerably increases productivity.
iGiotto: top quality with no manual programming
At present it is possible to program the robot manually by physically guiding its spraying arms around complex geometric shapes. This means that the robot learns how to move and replicate not only movements but also the related inaccuracies due to manual programming, piece after piece. Other solutions include point-to-point trajectory programming via special software However, when you need high repeatability, low paint consumption and shorter application times, the best solution is a high-performance anthropomorphic robot, such as iGiotto with cVision, the 3D scanner able to automatically generate trajectories of complex shapes.
iGiotto: Anthropomorphic spraying robot and cVision 3D reading system:
the winning duo
iGiotto is a complete spray coating system for water-based and solvent-based products using an anthropomorphic robot designed to paint large-sized objects such as doors, window frames or objects with a complex shape, and materials other than wood. Products transit on overhead lines and exit the spraying area into a drying tunnel before being collected in batches. Constant speed and constant distance between the spray guns and the product optimise lacquer consumption and ensure coating consistency. In environmental terms, lower consumption and less waste improves sustainability.
cVision acquires the 3D image of the piece to be coated and uses its special software to determine the best trajectories. The latest-generation, automatic 3D reading system (laser + camera) acquires position, size and shape of pieces in transit with unprecedented precision.
Making your coating process a competitive edge for your business, at all levels
iGiotto when used in conjunction with our exclusive cVision 3D Reading Barrier ensures time savings through coating process automation, improves the quality and consistency, thus leading to reduced lacquer consumption and lower costs.
Key issues
Faced with the following key issues, companies can become instantly more competitive by investing in a system where special software and automation provide immediate benefits. These are the main challenges we have addressed:
- PROGRAMMING
Today’s options allow you to manually program a robot by physically guiding its spraying arms around the complex geometrical shape. The robot learns how to move and replicates the movement piece after piece. You can also program point-to-point trajectories using a software off-line, but each batch will require your manual intervention to enter data into the software to obtain the coating parameters.
- COATING
Apart from the cost of a skilled operator, manual spraying of window frames often leads to fluctuating yields and coating inconsistency. Lacquer consumption frequently exceeds the optimal amount by 15 to 30%, leading to high filter replacement and disposal costs.
- OUTPUT
Production batches can often be small or customised. Operators will need to stop the line for colour changeover or to re-program the trajectories. All this is an obstacle to production efficiency and incurs costly downtime.
WhitePaper
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iGiotto and cVision: how we have solved the issues
Antropomorphic robots don't need to be manually programmed by cVision. This means no time at all spent defining trajectories. It’s all done automatically. You save time (at least 50%), can be sure of obtaining optimal parameters and consistent coating quality from the first piece to the last. The combined action of the laser and ultra-high resolution cameras allow iGiotto to automatically generate precise work trajectories based on the “recipes” of objects present in its database.
When iGiotto comes into play, the robot capitalises on the accuracy and optimisation of the pre-defined trajectories. In the case of doors, spraying with the new 3-gun wrist now saves considerably on lacquer consumption and ensures the best possible quality and consistency. Colour changes can be performed without even stopping the equipment, even for different products, so downtime is eliminated. And as new pieces enter the overhead line, the software makes sure iGiotto can switch from one piece to the next and one colour to the next without interrupting production.
New 3-gun wrist
The recently introduced 3-gun wrist, especially for coating doors, enables companies to enhance their production efficiency compared to the conventional 2-gun wrist. While spraying the front of the door, just one pass is necessary, reducing spraying time by approx. 40% and there is no need to have crossover trajectories.
