In most manufacturing and production facilities, defective or poor-quality products can be detected only after the vehicle has been fully painted. In simple processes, an operator identifies the quality issue and takes action. With the addition of basic sensors, some paint-quality defects can be prevented from happening. The system can sound an alert or alarm and the process stopped until technicians correct the issue before the painting proceeds. The most-efficient and capable processes include real-time sensing that detects component quality issues as they occur. That information is immediately fed back via a control loop to the process. Action is taken instantly to correct the process issue, minimizing or completely avoiding scrap and rework.
In automated painting systems, unsatisfactory paint application has long been detected only after the fact; a downstream inspection identified defects in the job. How far downstream that inspection occurs determines the number of poorly painted parts and the amount of rework or scrap created. Today, digitalization of the paint application process is changing that scenario with a smart atomizer for robotic paint lines that can virtually eliminate improperly painted parts and the resulting rework.