The centre provides an automated painting solution as a result of a collaboration with Yaskawa, centre owners Peak Contracts and paint supplier Graco ProBell.
An important focus of the technical centre is its support of the turnkey approach. This includes painting robots, electrostatics, rotary atomisers, air guns, up to 3k auto mix, paint mix and supply, complete booths, conveyor systems, 3D programming, safety planning and ATEX. Also, it can be used to provide customer training in all aspects of automated painting, from mixing and paint supply to robot programming and maintenance.
The engineers at Peak Contracts will work with 3D offline programming to understand the Yaskawa Motoman robot requirement in terms of reach and available cycle time. The 3D models, which can be imported into Yaskawa MotoSim, are said to ensure reach studies and robot programming. This enables customers to choose from the range of Yaskawa robots to ensure the most suitable and cost-effective solution for each application.
The in-house design team will then be able to establish a booth design to house the required robots and equipment, together with the controls department, to size and design any conveyor system of handling equipment required for the turnkey solution.
Peak Contracts offer paint trials in the new centre and working together with paint supply companies and the customer means that the set of painting parameters can be tested, helping to establish film builds, appearance and laydowns of the desired coating. The various settings of the Yaskawa robots, such as path speed, tool centre point and atomiser settings can be calculated and approved together with all stakeholders in the project.