Robotising an existing plastic exterior-parts line — five GR6150-2900, 12-colour base coat (engineered proposal)
Converting the manual primer, base and clear coat stations of a 2007 plastic-parts line to five tracking CMA GR6150-2900 robots: 2-colour 1K primer, 12-colour 1K base including pearl, and externally mixed 2K clear, at film builds of 8–12 / 15–30 / 30–40 µm on a 0.3–2.5 m/min conveyor. Quoted twice, stopped at contract draft.
The problem the customer brought
Not enough skilled operators, a manual process that was hard to manage, and finish quality that was hard to control.
Workpiece
Bumpers, spoilers, rear trim strips, mirrors and grilles for four vehicle programmes, up to 1,900 × 800 × 700 mm, on skids at 2,800 mm pitch, 2.69 min per skid; manual rework rate 10–15 %.
Robots
5 × CMA GR6150-2900 — one primer, two base coat, two clear coat — with conveyor tracking, PROFINET and 8 m explosion-proof cables.
Process and equipment
Primer 1K solvent in 2 colours, base coat 1K solvent in 12 colours including pearl, clear coat 2K solvent with clear and hardener mixed externally before the valve. Film build 8–12 µm primer, 15–30 µm base, 30–40 µm clear. DeVilbiss AGMD-Pro 1.4 mm automatic air guns; JH 6 cc gear pumps with Siemens S200 servos, inlet and outlet pressure sensors and bypass cleaning valves; colour change 2-colour 6-way × 3 on primer, 12-colour 15-way × 16 on base, 3H-1V hardener valves × 2 on clear, plus hold-pressure valves and a JH-207 gun washer. Chain speed 0.3–2.5 m/min (0.8 for pearl white). 1500F safety PLC cell control, three station operator cabinets, ET200SP remote I/O, encoder tracking and muting.
Commercial terms
Lead time 2–3 months after deposit, EXW; overall contract schedule 57 weeks; payment 40/30/30.
Shipping terms on current projects: EXW, FOB, CIF or DAP. Customer names, plant locations and prices are not published.
How it ended
Two quotation rounds, stopped at contract draft. During the process the integration scope changed from full integration by us to one integration plus four material sets with installation by the customer, and a Russian commissioning package was added.
What we do differently because of this project
The customer had PDF drawings but no CAD and no air-balance diagram, and "the rear of the booth needs to be about 1 m wider" was never confirmed. Robotising an existing line requires a site survey before bidding, or the robot-position simulation has nothing to stand on.