APPLICATION METHOD AND APPLICATION SYSTEM

Abstract

Applying a coating medium may include: emission of a coating medium jet from an application device and positioning the application device relative to the component with a particular application distance between the application device and the component, so that the coating medium jet impacts on the component and coats the component. The application distance (d) can be smaller than the disintegration distance of the coating medium jet, so that the coating medium jet impacts with its continuous region on the component.

Claims

1-19. (canceled)

20. A method for the application of a coating medium onto a component, comprising: emitting a coating medium jet from an application device, wherein, after emerging from the application device, the coating medium jet has a continuous region in the jet direction until said jet reaches a disintegration distance, whereupon, after the disintegration distance, the coating medium jet then disintegrates into droplets that are separate from one another in the jet direction; and positioning the application device at a specified application distance from the component so that the coating medium jet impacts on the component and coats the component; wherein the application distance is smaller than the disintegration distance of the coating medium jet, so that the coating medium jet impacts on the component with its continuous region.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the coating medium jet applies a pattern on the component; and the pattern is sharp-edged with maximum deviations from a pre-defined edge shape of a maximum of three millimetres and without coating medium splashes outside the pattern.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the coating medium jet is moved over the component a plurality of times to generate the pattern, a coating medium stripe being applied in each of the times.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein, following the application, the adjacent coating medium stripes merge into one another thereby forming a uniform stripe.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein following the application, the adjacent coating medium stripes do not merge into one another thereby forming two or more separate stripes.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the pattern comprises a stripe of the coating medium; the stripe has a width of at least 100 micrometres; and the stripe has a width of a maximum of one meter.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein a plurality of coating medium jets that are directed to be substantially parallel to one another are emitted from the application device; distances between directly adjacent coating medium jets are large enough such that the adjacent coating medium jets do not merge between the application device and the component; and for emission of the coating medium jets, a plurality of application nozzles with a specified nozzle internal diameter and a specified nozzle spacing are provided, wherein the nozzle spacing is at least equal to three times the nozzle internal diameter.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein the application device comprises a plurality of application nozzles of which at least some can be controlled independently of one another; and at least one of the following operating variables is independently controllable: the emission velocity of the coating medium from the application nozzles, the type of coating medium, and the volume flow rate of the coating medium through the application nozzles.

28. The method of claim 20, wherein the application device is moved relative to the component during the application of the coating medium.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the application device is arranged stationary, whereas the component is moved; the component is moved during the application of the coating medium at a speed of at least ten centimeters per second; and the component is moved during the application of the coating medium at a speed of a maximum of ten meters per second.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the component is arranged stationary, whereas the application device is moved; the application device is moved during the application of the coating medium at a speed of at least ten centimeters per second; and the application device is moved during the application of the coating medium at a speed of a maximum of 250 centimeters per second.

31. The method of claim 20, wherein the application device is moved relative to the component over the component surface, so that the impact point of the coating medium jet on the component surface moves along a strip; during the travel along the strip on the component surface, the coating medium jet is switched off and then on again; and the coating medium jet is moved so slowly over the component surface, and is switched on and off so rapidly, that a spatial resolution of finer than five millimeters is achieved on the component.

32. The method of claim 20, further comprising: moving the application device toward an edge of the component to be coated with the coating medium jet switched off; switching on the coating medium jet when the application device is located over the component; moving the application device over the component to be coated along the component surface to be coated; and switching off the coating medium jet when the application device is no longer located over the component surface to be coated.

33. The method of claim 20, further comprising: detecting a spatial position of the component to be coated; detecting a spatial position of the application device; switching on the coating medium jet depending on the detected positions of the component and of the application device; and switching off the coating medium jet depending on the detected positions of the component and of the application device.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein position detection is performed by a device selected from a group consisting of: a camera, an ultrasonic sensor, an inductive sensor, a capacitive sensor, a laser sensor, and a robot control system from which the position is read out.

35. The method of claim 20, wherein the application method comprises at least one of: a high application efficiency of at least eighty percent, so that substantially a whole of the applied coating medium is entirely deposited on the component without overspray occurring; an area coating output of at least 0.5 square meters per minute; a volume flow rate of the coating agent applied and thus the emergence velocity of the coating medium are set so that the coating medium does not rebound from the component after impacting on the component; an emergence velocity of the coating medium from the application device is at least five meters per second; the emergence velocity of the coating medium from the application device is a maximum of thirty meters per second; the application distance is at least four millimeters; the application distance is a maximum of two-hundred millimeters; the application device is moved by a machine, the coating medium is a water-based paint or a solvent-based paint; and the coating medium jet can be switched on or off with a switch-over duration of less than fifty milliseconds.

36. A method for the application of a coating medium onto a component, comprising: sensing an application distance between an application device and the component; emitting a coating medium jet from the application device onto the component only when the application distance is less than a disintegration distance defined by the coating medium jet, the coating medium emitted from the coating medium jet having a continuous region in a jet direction until the coating medium is at the disintegration distance, whereupon, after the disintegration distance, the coating medium then disintegrates into droplets that are separate from one another in the jet direction.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the application distance is no greater than 200 mm.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] Other advantageous developments of the present disclosure are disclosed in the subclaims or are described below in greater detail together with the description of the preferred exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, making reference to the drawings, in which:

[0042] FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a conventional application system;

[0043] FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of an application system;

[0044] FIGS. 3A-3C and 4A-4C show different representations of sharp-edged and not sharp-edged strips of a coating medium;

[0045] FIG. 5 shows a representation of a coating medium strip to illustrate edge-sharpness;

[0046] FIGS. 6A-6D show schematic representations of the switching on or switching off of the coating medium jet during component painting; and

[0047] FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram corresponding to FIGS. 6A-6D.

DESCRIPTION

[0048] FIG. 1 shows a conventional application system as known, for example, from DE 10 2010 019 612 A1. Herein, an application technology 1 supplies an application device 2 with the required media, for example, the coating medium to be applied, which can be, for example, a paint.

[0049] The application device 2 has a perforated plate 3 in which numerous application nozzles 4 are formed. Each of the application nozzles 4 of the perforated plate 3 emits a coating medium jet 5 wherein, directly after emission from the application nozzles 4, the coating medium jets 5 initially cohere over a disintegration distance LDECAY in the jet direction and then disintegrate into droplets, wherein the droplet disintegration is specifically forced in this conventional application system in that vibrations are coupled in.

[0050] The application device 2 is positioned relative to a component 6 to be coated at an application distance d, wherein the positioning takes place such that the application distance d is greater than the disintegration distance LDECAY. This means that the coating medium jets 5 do not impact on the component 6 with their continuous region, but as a succession of droplets.

[0051] FIG. 2 shows a variation of the conventional application system according to FIG. 1 in the direction of the present disclosure. The application system according to the present disclosure as per FIG. 2 partially matches the above-described conventional application system so that for the avoidance of repetition, reference is made to the above description wherein the same reference signs are used for corresponding details.

[0052] A peculiarity of the application system according to the present disclosure lies in that the application device 2 is positioned relative to the component 6 such that the application distance d is smaller than the disintegration distance LDECAY. This means that the coating medium jets 5 impact on the surface of the component 6 with their continuous region in the jet direction, which leads to a better painting result.

[0053] Furthermore, the droplet disintegration of the coating medium jets 5 is herein not specifically forced by means of the coupling-in of vibrations, since it is specifically the droplet disintegration that is to be prevented within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0054] The application system according to the present disclosure enables the application of sharp-edged patterns, as shown in FIGS. 3A-3C and 4A-4C and will be described now.

[0055] Thus, FIG. 3A shows a sharp-edged stripe, as can be applied onto the component 6 with the application system according to FIG. 2.

[0056] FIGS. 3B and 3C, however, show exemplary embodiments of conventional stripes with more or less ragged edges of the stripe.

[0057] FIGS. 4A-4C also do not show sharp-edged stripes, but rather unsuitable stripes with coating medium splashes laterally next to the actual stripe.

[0058] FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of a stripe 7 to illustrate the edge sharpness of the strip 7. The stripe 7 has a maximum deviation a, relative to a pre-determined edge shape, wherein the deviation a within the scope of the present disclosure may be smaller than 3 mm, 1 mm or 0.5 mm. In this way, for example, a decorative stripe with a high quality appearance can be produced on a motor vehicle bodywork.

[0059] FIGS. 6A-6D show, in schematic form, the application of a paint stripe onto a component 9 wherein the component 9 is laterally delimited by two edges 10, 11.

[0060] The coating medium stripes are herein applied by means of an application device 12 wherein the application device 12 can emit coating medium jets 13 as described above.

[0061] The application device 12 is initially moved toward the component 9, as shown in FIG. 6A, wherein the coating medium jet 13 is initially still switched off, since the coating medium jet 13 would not impact on the component 9 if the application device 12 is still located laterally adjoining the edge 10 of the component 9.

[0062] On passing the edge 10 of the component 9, the coating medium jet 13 is then switched on, as shown in FIG. 6B.

[0063] Subsequently, the application device 12 is guided, with the coating medium jet 13 switched on, over the surface of the component 9, as shown in FIG. 6C.

[0064] On passing the opposite edge 11 of the component 9, the coating medium jet 13 is then switched off again, as shown in FIG. 6D, since on subsequent further movement of the application device 12 beyond the edge 11 of the component 9, the coating medium jet 13 would no longer impact on the surface of the component 9.

[0065] With this switching on and off of the coating medium jet 13, an exceptionally high application efficiency level can be achieved almost without overspray.

[0066] The precise switching on and off of the coating medium jet 13 is enabled in that the positions of the application device 12 and of the component 9 are detected by a camera sensor 14.

[0067] As previously mentioned, in place of a camera sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an inductive or capacitive sensor or a laser sensor, which can be both firmly arranged in the environment of the application device and of the component, but can also be moved with the application device, can also be used.

[0068] FIG. 7 shows the operating method of the application system according to the present disclosure according to the different stages in FIGS. 6A-6D in a corresponding flow diagram.

[0069] The present disclosure is not restricted to the above-described preferred exemplary embodiments. Rather a plurality of variants and derivations is possible which also make use of the inventive concept and therefore fall within the scope of protection. In particular, the present disclosure also claims protection for the subject matter and the features of the subclaims separately from the claims to which they each refer.