Automatic coating method and apparatus

Coating apparatus – Projection or spray type – Moving projector

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C118S503000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06666164

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an automatic coating method for carrying out coating operations in various colors automatically by selectively loading and unloading paint cartridges of different colors into and from a coating apparatus, and an automatic coating apparatus therefor.
BACKGROUND ART
Generally, for coating objects like vehicle bodies, for example, rotary atomizing head type coating apparatus which are equipped with a rotary atomizing head have been in wide use. Lately, coating apparatus of this sort are increasingly required to meet demands for reductions of the amounts of paint and solvent to be discarded at the time of color changes and for capability of coping with a large number of paint colors.
As a first example of the prior art of this category, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H8-229446 describes a rotary atomizing head type coating apparatus which is so arranged as to reduce the amounts of discarding paint and solvent and which can cope with an increased number of paint colors. This rotary atomizing head type coating apparatus employs paint cartridges which are filled with different paint colors and adapted to be selectively and replaceably mounted on the coating apparatus in the course of a coating operation on vehicle bodies. However, no description is given in this prior art with regard to an apparatus for changing the paint cartridges.
As a second example of the prior art, there has been known an automatic coating apparatus (e.g. from Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. S63-175662) which is arranged to perform a coating operation automatically according to programmed procedures. According to this prior art automatic coating apparatus, paint cartridges of various colors are located within a working area of a coating robot or other working mechanism, and, at the time of cartridge replacement, the working mechanism is operated to serve as a cartridge changer. Therefore, in this case each one of the paint cartridges needs to be located within a reach of the working mechanism. However, actually there is a limit to the number of paint cartridges which can be located within a working area of a working mechanism.
Further, as a third example of the prior art, there has been known an automatic coating apparatus as described in International Gazette WO97/34707. This third prior art coating apparatus is comprised of a working mechanism such as a coating robot which is provided in a coating area, a coating machine which is mounted on the working mechanism and provided with a rotary atomizing head adapted to be put in high speed rotation by an air motor for atomizing paint into finely divided particles, a number of paint cartridges which are filled with paint of different colors and adapted to be replaceably mounted on the coating machine, and a cartridge changer which is arranged to support the respective paint cartridges and mount and dismantle a paint cartridge on and from the coating apparatus for cartridge replacement.
In this case, the cartridge changer is provided with a round support table which is arranged to support a large number of paint cartridges in an annular array. The cartridge support table is turned by a drive motor or the like to bring a paint cartridge to be used for a coating operation, to a predetermined pick-up position.
In the case of the third prior art automatic coating apparatus which is arranged in the manner just described, paint is supplied from a cartridge to a coating machine of the coating apparatus to spray the paint toward a coating object. At this time, the working mechanism is put in operation to move the coating apparatus along contours of coating surfaces of a coating object.
When changing the paint color, the working mechanism is moved to bring the paint cartridge on the coating apparatus to a predetermined cartridge changing position of the cartridge changer. Then, a cartridge gripper which is provided on the side of the cartridge changer is operated to remove a consumed or empty paint cartridge from the coating apparatus and return same to the cartridge support table. Nextly, a fresh paint cartridge which is filled with a next color is picked up from the cartridge support table and mounted on the coating apparatus.
The cartridge changer according to the prior art just mentioned is arranged to locate a selected one of the paint cartridges on the cartridge support table in a predetermined pick-up position by turning the support table, and mounted on the coating apparatus in place of a cartridge of a previous color.
However, the cartridge support table, which carries a large number of paint cartridges in an annular array, is necessarily large in size and weight. It follows that, for driving the cartridge support table, the cartridge changer is required to have a drive motor with large driving power. Needless to say, a cartridge changer of a large size is disadvantageous in that it invites increases in cost.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above-mentioned problems with the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic coating method and apparatus for putting the method into practice, in which a large number of paint cartridges of different colors are arranged and located in such an efficient manner as to facilitate cartridge replacements and to realize reductions in size and cost of the coating apparatus in addition to improvements in working efficiency.
In order to achieve the above-stated objective, according to the present invention, there is provided an automatic coating method which is applied by the use of a working mechanism located in a coating area, a coating apparatus mounted on the working mechanism and adapted to be replaceably loaded with paint cartridges of various colors, and a cartridge changer including a paint replenishing means for replenishing paint into the paint cartridges and a cartridge gripper means having a couple of gripper members for gripping paint cartridges separately thereon and adapted to hand over paint cartridges to and from the coating apparatus to replace an empty paint cartridge on the coating apparatus by a replenished paint cartridge.
The automatic coating method according to the present invention comprises: coating step of coating object by the coating apparatus loaded with a replenished paint cartridge and moved by the working mechanism; a replenished paint cartridge picking up step of picking up said replenished paint cartridge of a color to be used in a next coating operation from a paint replenisher means by the use of one of the gripper members of the cartridge gripper means; an empty paint cartridge unloading step of unloading said empty paint cartridge from the coating apparatus by the use of the other one of the gripper members of the cartridge gripper means having the replenished paint cartridge still gripped in one gripper member; the replenished paint cartridge loading step of loading said replenished paint cartridge into the coating apparatus by one gripper member of the cartridge gripper means having the empty paint cartridge still gripped on the other gripper member; and returning the unloaded empty paint cartridge to the paint replenishing means.
With the arrangements just described, in the coating step, the working mechanism is put in motion to perform a coating operation by the coating apparatus which is loaded with a replenished paint cartridge. In the step of picking up a replenished paint cartridge, a replenished paint cartridge is gripped and picked up from the paint replenishing means by one of the gripper members of the cartridge gripper means. Nextly, in the empty cartridge unloading step, the empty paint cartridge is picked up from the coating apparatus by the other gripper member of the cartridge gripper means while gripping the replenished paint cartridge by one of the gripper members of the cartridge gripper means. In the replenished paint cartridge loading step, the replenished paint cartridge is loaded into the coating apparatus by one of the gripper members of the cartridge gripper means whi

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