Robotic vehicle painting instrument including a terahertz radiation device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10071482-B2
Application number	US-201514829888-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2015
Priority date	Aug 19, 2015
Publication date	Sep 11, 2018
Grant date	Sep 11, 2018

Abstract

A method comprising scanning a first painted surface of a first vehicle having two or more paint layers with a robotic terahertz radiation instrument to obtain a first painted surface thickness data and map for each of the two or more paint layers, comparing the first thickness map to a control map, and adjusting one or more paint application parameters based on a comparison of the first thickness map with the control map for painting a second surface of a second vehicle different than the first vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
while emitting terahertz radiation, moving a robotic terahertz radiation instrument across a first painted surface of a first vehicle having multiple paint layers and adjusting a terahertz radiation beam spot size to about 0.5-μm responsive to a scanned area being a windshield flange to obtain a first painted surface thickness map at the windshield flange;
comparing the thickness map to a control map; and
adjusting a paint spray distance based on the comparison of the thickness and control maps for painting a surface of a subsequent second vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first painted surface of the first vehicle and the surface of the second vehicle are on the same type of a body part.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the same type of the body part is a vehicle door or hood.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting step includes adjusting a path of a robotic vehicle painting instrument.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scanning step includes directing the robotic terahertz radiation instrument at the first painted surface.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multiple paint layers include at least three paint layers having different chemical composition from each other.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multiple paint layers include at least three layers and the first painted surface includes interfaces between each pair of adjacent paint layers of the at least three paint layers.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the scanning step includes recording reflections from each interface.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the thickness map is generated based on a refractive index of the multiple paint layers and time delay of the reflections.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multiple paint layers comprise horizontally stratified layers.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scanning comprises raster scanning.

12. A method comprising:
scanning a first painted surface of a first vehicle having two or more paint layers and adjusting a robotic terahertz radiation spot size to about 0.5-μm while scanning a windshield flange to obtain thickness data;
comparing the thickness data to control data; and
adjusting a path of a robotic vehicle painting instrument based on the comparison of the thickness data and control data for painting a corresponding surface of a second vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the thickness data is collected continuously.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein a time period between collection of data from two different points of the first painted surface is a hundredth of a second.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising adjusting a rotational velocity of a paint bell based on a comparison of the thickness data and control data.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the thickness data is determined while the first painted surface is wet.

17. A method comprising:
while emitting terahertz radiation, moving a robotic terahertz radiation instrument to continuously scan a first painted surface area of a first vehicle having two or more horizontally stratified paint layers, and adjusting a terahertz radiation beam spot size as a function of a size of a scanned area of the first painted surface area, the scanned area corresponding to a windshield flange, to obtain a first painted surface area thickness data and map for each paint layer;
comparing the thickness map to a control map; and
adjusting a path of a robotic vehicle painting instrument based on the comparison of the thickness and control maps for painting a surface area of a second vehicle different than the first vehicle.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein a scanning interval is a hundredth of a second.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the continuous scanning includes performing a raster scan in a pattern in which the first painted surface area is scanned from side to side in lines from top to bottom.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the thickness map is generated based on a refractive index of the two or more horizontally stratified paint layers and time delay of the reflections from each interface.

Assignees

• Ford Motor Co
• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Nichols Mark Edward
• Misovski Tony
• Adams Scott
• Fiala Aaron

Classifications

• B05D7/53

  Base coat plus clear coat type · CPC title

• B05B12/084

  responsive to condition of liquid or other fluent material already sprayed on the target, e.g. coating thickness, weight or pattern · CPC title

• Y10S901/43

  Spray painting or coating · CPC title

• B25J9/1679 Primary

  characterised by the tasks executed · CPC title

• B05D7/57

  the last layer being a clear coat · CPC title