DougG

Last week I was invited back to an open house at the robotics firm that I retired from 11 years ago. One demo that caught my eye was of one of our paint robots simulating painting a bicycle frame.


I worked almost exclusively on auto-related products (and they are still the leader in automotive welding and painting in North America at least), but they have branched out into a lot of other industries. Maybe having Trek as a customer is why I noticed the beautiful clearcoated metallic gray paint job on my wife's Verve+ eBike that she got this year!

Hmm... Wonder if some of my software is still humming away in those controllers?

BobbyG

I guess programming the robots to hum is good for moral.

himespau 

I have to imagine that the controller computers are shielded and away from the robot in the real world to protect them from paint blowback.

CliffordK

Neat video, although I'd like to see it also applying stencils and airbrushing accents.

Moe Zhoost

When I've painted frames, I've usually done the rear triangle first before moving to the main triangle - pretty much back to front. The motion used by the robot looks like a much better sequence to use, though it would be tough to match that speed. Perhaps if I had an assistant rotating the frame.

Thanks for posting.

tcs

Toured Ford's Rouge factory this past summer. The robots were working at a furious pace and - I guess thanks to the security goons - I couldn't even get them to look up from their work, much less take a robot union pamphlet.

berner

To quote Arthur C. Clarke, "Humans are an inevitable development in the evolution of the computer".

mrt2you

i have heard that the project one custom paint jobs are done by hand. a former co-worker, i work in a body shop, applied for this job 4 years ago.

_ForceD_

Was the clear coat going on? I didn't see anything change color, and the TREK didn't get painted over.

Dan

DougG

There was no paint involved -- it was just using a light beam to illustrate the spray pattern.

TiHabanero

Curiously enough, the last frame I painted with a rattle can followed the same path of application the robot took.

UKFan4Sure

I went for training at ABB about 15 years ago. It was a gantry unit with a vacuum tool end. The training was pretty neat. But I learned one thing: If you aren't trained, leave it alone. Crashing one gets expensive and having a unit down is not where you want to be.

spelger

I still prefer the manual paint jobs. Just seems like more care is put into the job...

700

With an arc welder attached to the street guy, could they powder coat?