Coating installation with an atomizer change station

• US 20040129208A1
• Filed: 03/27/2002
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Durr Systems Incorporated (Durr AG)
• Original Assignee: Durr Systems Incorporated (Durr AG)
• Inventors: Herre, Frank, Haas, Juergen, Melcher, Rainer, Baumann, Michael, Krumma, Harry, Nolte, Hans J., Giuliano, Stefano
• Granted Patent: US 7,018,679 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 118/305
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/1454 separate units comprising both a material container and a spray device permanently connected thereto being removably attached to a part of the spray apparatus, e.g. to a robot arm
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 13/0431 with spray heads moved by robots or articulated arms, e.g. for applying liquid or other fluent material to 3D-surfaces B05B13/0436, B05B13/0442, B05B13/0447, B05B13/0463 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 15/0491 comprising end-effector racks
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 483/10 Process
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 483/17 including machine tool or component

Abstract

A change station for atomizer (7) and other tools that contains a carousel-like rotatable and/or linearly movable mount (112) is arranged on the wall of the cabin of a coating installation. The arrangement is such that the storage locations of the change station are accessible both to the coating machine (151) in the cabin and from outside the cabin.

Claims

1. Coating installation for the sequential coating of workpieces with releasable and exchangeable tools mountable on at least one coating machine (151), which tools can be removed and retrieved by the coating machine (151) at storage locations (2) of a tool change station (100), operated by said machine in a spray cabin, characterized by the fact that the storage locations (2) are distributed about the center (1) of a movable mount (112) common to said storage locations.

2. Coating installation according to claim 1 or its preamble, characterized by the fact that the change station (150) is arranged in the region of the cabin wall (154), so that the storage locations (2) are accessible both to the coating machine (151) in the cabin and from the outside of the cabin.

3. Coating installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the fact that the storage locations (2) are arranged in the form of a carousel, especially in circular fashion, about a center (1) common to said storage locations.

4. Coating installation according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the storage locations (2) are arranged on a mount (112) rotatable or pivotable about a center axis (1) of change station (150).

5. Coating installation according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the mount (112) is movable with the storage locations (2) linearly within the cabin.

6. Coating installation according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that a separate movable magazine (40) for additional storage locations is connected to the carousel-like mount (112).

7. Coating installation according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that a tool identification device (52) is arranged in or on the change station (150).

8. Coating installation according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the common center (1) of storage locations (2) lies in or near the plane of the cabin wall (154).

9. Coating installation according to claim 8, characterized by the fact that a cover arrangement (153) for the storage locations (2) is rotatable about a center axis of change station (150) lying in or near the plane of the cabin wall (154).

10. Coating installation (150, 250) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the storage locations (2) are protected by an automatically closeable cover (153) that is automatically opened to remove and insert a tool.

11. Coating installation according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the change station (150) contains at least one atomizer (7) provided with a paint vessel.

12. Coating installation according to claim 11, characterized by the fact that the change station (150) contains at least one measurement device to monitor coating quality.

13. Method for sequential coating of workpieces with releasable and exchangeable tools mounted on at least one coating machine (151), which are stored and retrieved by the coating machine in a spray cabin in storage locations (2) of a tool change station (15) operable by said machine, characterized by the fact that the storage locations (2) within change station (150) are moved to a transfer station (23) for the coating machine (151) and, after removal or insertion of the tool (7), are moved away again from the transfer station (23) by the machine (151).

14. Method according to claim 13, characterized by the fact that the storage locations (2) are moved by rotation of their mount (112) between the transfer station (23) and a rinsing and filling station (9) for atomizer (7) containing paint vessels.

15. Method according to claim 13 or 14, characterized by the fact that, after the coating of a workpiece, the application tool (7) employed is stored in the change station (150) and a measurement device is removed from the change station to monitor the coating quality.

16. Method according to claim 15, characterized by the fact that the hue, spreading, layer thickness and/or another quality parameter of the coating just applied is measured with the measurement device removed from the change station (150),

that the measurement results are compared with stored reference values and correction values corresponding to deviations are calculated for the coating process parameters responsible for the deviations,

and that the coated workpiece is finally processed with an application tool (7), removed from the change station (150), and/or subsequent workpieces are coated using the corrected coating process parameters.

17. Method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized by the fact that the application tool (7) and the measurement device are used by the same robot (151).