Steel truck-wheel painting line — two GR680-2700 robots in mirrored booths
Two CMA GR680-2700 explosion-proof robots paint both faces of steel truck wheels (Ø17.5–26 in, up to 76 kg, 8 wheel types) in mirrored water-curtain booths on a continuous overhead conveyor, tracked by a 2,000 pulse-per-revolution encoder. Delivered ex works in 10 weeks; pre-acceptance in China passed every item.
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
Steel truck wheels Ø17.5"–26", up to 76 kg, 8 wheel types, on a continuous overhead conveyor at 1,200 mm pitch and 1.4–1.8 m/min.
Robots
2 × CMA GR680-2700 painting robots (ATEX Zone 1/21, hollow wrist, conveyor tracking).
Process and equipment
Waterborne 1K amino-acrylic silver topcoat over e-coat primer at 32–34 s application viscosity; DeVilbiss AGMD Pro automatic air guns (1.2 / 1.4 mm); BINKS Maple-15 pneumatic pump with a 200 L base module; 2-colour + solvent + air colour-change valve; two mirrored water-curtain booths painting both faces on the line; 2,000 P/R encoder tracking; Siemens CPU 1511F-1 safety PLC cell control with SICK light curtains and Pilz Ex door switches; two 100 kg assist manipulators for load and unload.
Pre-integration and factory acceptance test
Safety logic proven, robot paths run on the parts, electrical circuits and every connection checked, equipment inspected point by point before crating.
Delivery and site work
EXW Wuhu; road transport to the customer.
Commercial terms
Lead time 10 weeks, EXW.
Shipping terms on current projects: EXW, FOB, CIF or DAP. Customer names, plant locations and prices are not published.
Result
Delivered. Pre-acceptance in China passed every item — communication, tracking, manual/auto modes and emergency stop. The handover package included EPLAN drawings, PLC and HMI programs, the IP address list and passwords. The equipment specification went through three revisions; the assist manipulators were delivered to the R3000 / 1,750 mm lift version with tilt.
What we do differently because of this project
Hanger type and cycle time are frozen before simulation starts. Moving from one wheel per hanger at 2.8 m/min to two wheels at 1.6 m/min sent the robot selection back and forth between two models, and a mixed model number even reached the acceptance sheet.
Photographs from this project
Customer names, plant identification and location watermarks are removed. Captions state where an image is a general illustration rather than this customer's plant.
