Electric heating – Metal heating – By arc
Patent
1995-11-10
1999-01-26
Evans, Geoffrey S.
Electric heating
Metal heating
By arc
21912169, 2191218, B23K 2604
Patent
active
058641149
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a coating removal apparatus for removing a coating such as a paint film or an oil film present on the surface of a structure such as a car.
PRIOR ART
Conventional techniques for removing a paint film present on the surface of an object include mechanical scraping, chemical dissolution or the like. However, of these techniques, the former one has the disadvantages of generating dusts to be processed later, involving the risk of damaging the object's surface or the like. The latter technique does not generate dusts, but has the disadvantages such as flammability of a solvent used, toxicity of the solvent, processing for the disposition of the solution with a paint composition dissolved.
As another attempt, there have been proposed techniques for removing a paint film by firing laser beams so as to heat and vaporize the film. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,885 discloses an apparatus which senses the removal of a paint film by analyzing the spectrum of the reflected light from the laser-irradiated area and repeats removing operations until a complete removal is achieved. However, this apparatus does not contemplate the automation of removal operations, so it is not suited for removing paint films on up-and-down surfaces or on complicated structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,664 discloses a method for firing laser beams to remove a material stuck on a surface of a structure, for example, seam fillers for an aircraft's body, when finishing the material to a desired shape. This method comprises the steps of preparing a three dimensional map of a structure; preparing data representative of a desired profile with a material coated in an ideal thickness; coating the material a little thicker; scanning the coated surface to prepare data representative of the coated surface; firing necessary positions in accordance with the map while comparing the data representative of the desired surface contour to that representative of the coated surface; comparing the data representative of the removed surface profile to that representative of the desired profile; and repeating the removing operations until an appropriate removal is achieved. This method was certainly effective in the case where the material is coated so thick that the data representative of the coated surface profile can be discriminated from that of the uncoated surface profile, but was not suitable for removing a thin film such as a paint, an oil film etc. which contour can not be detected as distinguishable data. Furthermore, the control for firing necessary positions was performed only in accordance with the map data of the painted surface. Accordingly, due to the variations of structure contours, errors in installing the apparatus or the like, the position actually being laser-fired was shifted from the position specified in the control data, and therefore this method had difficulties in performing precise removal operations.
PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a coating removal apparatus for a structure which can automatically remove a thin film such as a paint film or an oil film on the surface of the structure.
MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS
The above object is achieved by a coating removal apparatus for removing a coating present on the surface of a structure using a laser beam, the apparatus comprising: operations; accordance with a laser beam firing signal forwarded from the control device; structure based on an operating signal forwarded from the control device; and generating data related to the removal progress, coordinate data of each area on the structure surface and laser firing specifications at each coordinate position, a scanning controller for generating an operating signal for the scanning device based on the coordinate data in the setting device, and a emitting controller for generating a laser beam firing signal in synchronism with the scanning of a laser beam based on the laser beam firing specifications in the
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Evans Geoffrey S.
Ishikawa Toshiharu
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