Powder Coating Made Effortless: Discover RobPathRec’s RoboDK-based Solution

Powder coating is a helpful course of for producers seeking to create merchandise with sturdy floor ending. This new answer from RobPathRec makes use of RoboDK to simplify the creation of powder coating processes.

Designed for each novice and skilled robotic customers, the answer can coat workpieces from each side concurrently. It considerably saves on worker work time and helps to multiply the capabilities of the present workforce.

Right here’s how the workforce at RobPathRec used RoboDK to create their new answer for Riedel & Soelch, a Nürnberg-based firm specialised in powder coating.

What’s Powder Coating?

Powder Coating is a dry ending course of that has steadily gained recognition since its introduction within the Sixties. Over 15% of the economic ending market is powder coating, in accordance with the Powder Coating Institute.

Powder coatings are each extremely sturdy and ornamental. They’re obtainable in all kinds of colours and textures.

Such a coating works by electrostatic spray deposition. First, a polymer resin system is blended with pigments and different components to create a powder. A twig gun applies an electrostatic cost to this powder, which attracts them to the floor of the thing. The components are then cured in an oven to create sturdy molecular chains on the floor.

Powder coatings are recognized for being straightforward to make use of, environmentally pleasant, cost-effective, and extremely sturdy. They’re harder than liquid paints and supply dependable safety towards influence, moisture, chemical compounds, ultraviolet mild, and excessive climate circumstances.

From an automation perspective, most small to medium producers nonetheless apply powder coating utilizing handbook instruments. They’re much less more likely to be expert in robotic integration, however may benefit from robots if that they had the precise answer.

Introducing… RobPathRec

RobPathRec is an organization that features a small group of business professionals who’re devoted to serving to individuals overcome the on a regular basis challenges of automation.

The workforce provides custom-made {hardware} and software program options for industrial and collaborative robotic customers. They purpose to supply painless robotic programming that may save as much as 90% of the educating time in comparison with standard strategies of business robotic programming.

Their programming answer features a digital actuality programming setting for path creation, path recording utilizing a hint machine, and robotic code technology for a variety of robotic techniques.

RobPathRec works in partnership with RoboDK, which operates as a core software program element for his or her robotic options. They promote this answer built-in with RoboDK utilizing RobPathRec’s MakeItEasy addin.

The Undertaking: Riedel & Soelch’s Collaboration with RobPathRec

The objective of RobPathRec’s powder coating challenge was to allow workpieces to be coated from each side on the identical time by a cobot-human collaborative workforce. The workforce started the challenge following necessities by one among their prospects.

On one aspect of the workpiece, a collaborative robotic applies the powder coating. The opposite aspect, which entails extra complicated coating steps, is coated by an worker.

The purpose of this strategy is to avoid wasting the worker work time. The human’s dexterity is simply required for essentially the most complicated operations, which makes the most effective use of their abilities. That is significantly necessary proper now as the corporate was discovering it very robust to rent employees with a excessive sufficient handbook ability to carry out these complicated powder coating operations.

The System: RobPathRec and RoboDK

The system concerned combining of off-the-shelf {hardware} and software program parts with custom-made parts.

The core {hardware} and software program parts had been:

• RoboDK Software — Our extremely fashionable robotic programming software program. The answer makes use of RoboDK for simulation, visualization and offline programming.
• RobPathRec App — The corporate’s custom-made app for RoboDK for fast and straightforward path programming.
• HTC Vive Tracker Sensor — The system makes use of 6D monitoring {hardware} supplied by HTC Vive to trace the movement of the coating gun (TCP).
• A Universal Robots UR10e — A Common Robots collaborative robotic with 10 kg payload and an built-in force-torque sensor.
• A GEMA powder coating gun — A gun, based mostly on the design of handbook powder weapons, particularly designed to be included as the top effector of a robotic.

By combining these parts, the workforce at RobPathRec created an built-in system that may obtain high-quality, constant powder coating with minimal handbook intervention. Because it makes use of a collaborative robotic, the system can function close to human employees, which permits the answer to work in a collaborative workforce with an worker.

Who Is It For? The System’s Many Makes use of

Whereas the system was designed for powder coating, it might truly be used for a lot of extra robotic functions.

The system is appropriate for any system that at the moment makes use of handbook instruments and needs so as to add automation. It’s significantly suited to customers that need the advantages of automation however aren’t significantly keen on studying concerning the robotic expertise.

One finish person from Riedel & Soelch mentioned:

“It was surprisingly straightforward to make use of. Far simpler than anything we used earlier than.”

In addition to powder coating, different instance functions embody spraying, welding, dishing out, gluing, sprucing, and grinding. It might be used for working with wooden, metallic, or plastic.

The corporate offers each long-term and short-term subscription choices, starting from a yearly all the way in which down to only 7 days. This makes it an acceptable answer for corporations even when they solely want automation help sporadically.

Unlocking the Way forward for Automation for SMB Workshops

This answer by RobPathRec is an ideal instance of the kind of system that may be made quite simple by basing it round RoboDK.

By leveraging the flexibleness of RoboDK‘s app interface, the workforce at RobPathRec may create an answer that’s straightforward for his or her finish customers to make use of. The system helps their prospects to cut back the wrestle that comes with a scarcity of expert energy coating workforce, serving to them to take advantage of from their current staff.

This subtle but user-friendly answer opens the doorways to automation to many corporations which may in any other case discover robotics too formidable to get began with.

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