As the global automotive industry faces one of the most significant transition periods in recent history, ABB is at the forefront of developing smart manufacturing technologies. As a result of the shift, more robots will be used in conjunction with other technologies, such as autonomous mobile robots (AMR). This will enable ABB’s automotive customers to optimise the distribution of components in their facilities and connect modular, scalable and integrated production cells, such as PixelPaint, to ensure the flexibility needed to meet changing demand levels.
To develop the world’s first robot-painted art car, ABB Robotics partnered with two leading artists.
Advait Kolarkar, an eight-year-old Indian child prodigy who creates works using a variety of shapes, intricate motifs and powerful splashes of interlocking lines in his work that take on an abstract concept.
Illusorr, a digital design company based in Dubai. Their digital designs are influenced by a mix of science fiction and nature. Advait’s swirling monochromatic design, as well as Illusorr’s tri-coloured geometric patterns, were perfectly reproduced with ABB’s award-winning PixelPaint technology.
The incredibly intricate artwork was completed in less than 30 minutes with ABB‘s IRB 5500 painting robots, which were equipped with 1000 nozzles in the printhead. PixelPaint technology captures complex and elaborate details that would be difficult to produce by hand with extraordinary accuracy and speed.
ABB‘s PixelPaint technology enables accurate, detailed and colourful copying of any design. This underlines the growing need in the automotive sector for long-term customisation. Traditionally, multi-colour automotive painting has been a costly and time-consuming operation involving numerous masking and de-masking steps.
Paint can be applied quickly in a single application if it is well regulated. This advance in paint automation allows the automotive industry to offer more specialised and individualised designs.
The paint head closely follows the vehicle body, according to the company’s RobotStudio software, to ensure that 100 percent of the paint is applied to the car.
The product only passes through the paint shop once and the different paint colours are applied quickly. For car manufacturers, this can cut production time in half and save costs by up to 60 percent.
PixelPaint technology also improves industrial sustainability by eliminating the need for masking materials and additional ventilation, resulting in lower emissions and savings in water and energy.
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