A new robotic painting centre has opened in Derby, which offers both automated or upgrades to manual installations to apply solvent- and water-based paints.
The centre’s owners Peak Contracts Ltd, along with robotics company Yaskawa and paint supplier Graco collaborated on the facility.
The painting robot and Graco’s ProBell, a rotary applicator for automatic finishing, are used in conjunction to provide automated painting services.
One of the major ambitions behind the centre is the provision of a full turnkey solution, including: painting robots, electrostatics, rotary atomisers, air guns, up to 3k auto mix, paint mix and supply, complete booths, conveyor systems, 3D programming, safety planning and ATEX.
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The site also offers customer training in all aspects of automated painting, from mixing and paint supply, through to robot programming and maintenance.
Jonny Grey, UK sales and marketing manager, Yaskawa, said: “Yaskawa Motoman offers manufacturers a wide range of robotic solutions for today’s automated paint finishing applications as demonstrated by this successful collaboration with Peak Contracts and their paint delivery partner Graco”.
Engineers will work with 3D offline programming to understand the Yaskawa robot’s requirements in terms of reach and available cycle time.
The 3D models can then be imported into Yaskawa MotoSim, enabling customers to choose from a range of robots to ensure the most suitable solution for each application.
Peak Contracts have offered painting trials in the new centre and worked with paint suppliers, meaning the full set of painting parameters can be tested helping to establish film builds, appearance and laydowns of the desired coating.
The various settings of the Yaskawa robots, such as path speed, tool centre point and atomiser settings can be also be calculated and approved through the trials.
The latest developments in robotics and automated technologies for materials handling will be on show at the Robotics and Automation Exhibition on 19-20 March 2024 at the NEC Birmingham. Register now to attend the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to robotics and automation, which is co-located with Britain’s biggest warehousing show, IntraLogisteX!
