The digital spray pattern: cutting-edge support for quality assurance and research & development
In a coating process, many factors—some of which are difficult to measure—affect coating quality. As a result, coating defects frequently occur during production, manifesting as a lack of functionality or inferior visual quality of the coated component. A common source of error is the atomisation process, or more specifically the spray pattern generated during the process. This is where AOM-Systems can support quality assurance – by visualising the atomisation process as a ‘digital spray pattern’. A SpraySpy® measuring device measures the spray and calculates the volume distribution of the paint within the spray cone.
AOM-Systems has developed the ‘digital spray pattern’ to support quality assurance staff and plant operators. Unlike the traditional spray pattern, the digital spray pattern is easier to ‘read’ and can also be evaluated automatically. It takes little time to generate and can be produced at short intervals, and it provides even the untrained eye with an immediate first impression of the spray’s quality. Furthermore, the digital storage of the spray pattern is advantageous.
It is an objective method that allows even large volumes of data to be processed without difficulty. For example, the user can compare different sets of spray data and identify or observe trends. In this way, the measurement contributes to the optimisation of the spraying process and also to the digitalisation of this process: The digital spray pattern, for example, enables the computer-assisted, automated comparison of all spray patterns from a given period, even spanning several months.