The trend towards individualisation is also on the rise in car colour. Small car buyers in particular are increasingly ordering decorative and contrasting colours, for example for the roof, to stand out from the crowd. For the automotive industry, two-tone painting means considerable additional work. Dürr now offers a solution: The EcoPaintJet system enables precise, selective paint application and thus the combination of customer-specific product design and automated production. Until now, decorative and contrast colors, for example on roofs or as design strips, required considerable effort: After the entire bodywork has been painted, dried and cooled in the basic color, it must be masked by hand with adhesive foil - except for those areas that are to be given a different color. Then it goes to the painting line again, where the second colour is applied. After drying and cooling again, the film has to be removed manually.
The new process completely eliminates the need to mask the body. On a robot arm, an applicator applies the paint with absolute separation precision. After a cycle time of only 120 seconds, a body roof is painted with the contrasting color. During masking, the application and removal of the adhesive film alone takes about 50 minutes. The applicator works without overspray. A filigree nozzle plate measuring just a few square centimetres prevents overspray from forming. The new technology is currently being tested by several automobile manufacturers. Meanwhile Dürr is already working on a further development of the technology, which can also paint more complex geometries. In the future - similar to a digital printer - it will also be possible to automatically apply lettering and logos.
Autor(en): Ke
