Product category:
Paint and painting systems
News Release from: ABB Robotics | Subject: IRB 5500 robot
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 October 2007
Fewer robots needed to paint cars
Having a very large working envelope, two robots can replace four existing ones when painting an automobile's exterior and ensures coating is more consistent.
ABB claimed that its latest IRB 5500 robot reduces the number of robots required to paint the exterior of a car from four to two With the coverage and flexibility of the robot arm, each IRB5500 robot can typically paint over half of a car's body each, from a fixed position, said ABB
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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With a huge working envelope, the IRB5500 can paint complete surfaces eliminating the need for overlapping or 'patch painting' and ensuring that the paint quality on the car's body is more consistent.
In addition to the working envelope, two other features of the IRB5500 make this possible.
* The robot's high acceleration rate.
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* The high flow of the atomiser or paint gun on the robot.
In order to achieve a high quality paint finish in existing processes and to maintain application consistency, each robot arm needs move off the part, switch off the atomiser, slow down, change direction, accelerate, switch on the atomiser and then move back over the part to continue painting.
The IRB5500's acceleration rate of 24m/s2 is double of what many robots currently reach.
Also its painting speed of 1.5-2m/s, ensures that paint is applied consistently across a car's body surface allowing the robot to continue to paint the part whilst changing direction.
This produces the highest quality finish, said ABB to Manufacturingtalk, whilst also minimising cycle time required to paint a car body.
The addition of a high-flow atomiser, with a flow rate of 1000cm3/min, complements the acceleration and fast working speed of the robot.
This is achieved through the bell atomiser having a rotational speed up to 70,000 rev/min and a voltage of up to 90,000V.
This attracts the paint to the car body through a process of electrostatic attraction creating a consistent film build.
With fewer robots required for painting, users' initial outlay and consumable costs are reduced.
The IRB5500 robot has been designed to work in a narrow booth, enabling major reductions in the air handling volume, reducing the capital investment and running costs of the booth.
The IRB5500 uses ABB's Cartridge Bell System for applying paint.
Each paint cartridge is filled to provide the required amount of paint for the car being painted, so that waste is kept low.
The change-over process keeps disruption to a minimum, with the robot taking only 10 seconds to change cartridges.
The IRB5500 is powered by ABB's Integrated Process System (IPS).
It is a closed loop process system that ensures that both the robot motion and paint process control are precisely co-ordinated to provide optimum quality. Request a free brochure from ABB Robotics ...
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