Calculate required amount of paint for mechanical spring

[Tamasai928]

Hello,

I am currently designing an automatic spring color coding machine. The design is quite simple: a paint nozzle is attached to a linear actuator placed directly above the paint table. The nozzle moves from left to right to paint the spring.

The issue I am currently facing is figuring out the amount of paint needed for color coding.

The company makes springs of different sizes, and the paint coverage varies from spring to spring. Therefore, the machine needs to be able to adjust the amount of paint required. We don’t face penalties for overpainting the springs, but the main goal of this project is to reduce the overpaint usage.

Is there a way to estimate the amount of paint needed? I have a 3D model of each spring, including their material and surface area, but I’m not sure how I can calculate the paint amount with this information.

Thanks,

 

[Brian Malone]

Without a sketch or diagram of your exact process or knowledge of your cost/resource constraints: Do you have to limit yourself to an estimate/prediction of the amount of paint required? Or can you place various springs in the setup and run physical tests to develop your algorithm? Take your empirical data and match up to the numeric data to classify paint required based on each spring type. Your predictive model can be fine tuned with iteration over production runs.

 

[btrueblood]

Seems like powder coating would be bettter - less overspray, and you can recycle/reclaim what overspray does occur.

 

[Tamasai928]

Without a sketch or diagram of your exact process or knowledge of your cost/resource constraints: Do you have to limit yourself to an estimate/prediction of the amount of paint required? Or can you place various springs in the setup and run physical tests to develop your algorithm? Take your empirical data and match up to the numeric data to classify paint required based on each spring type. Your predictive model can be fine tuned with iteration over production runs.

Hi Brian,

I'm straight out of school and don't really have in-depth knowledge yet.

I've attached a screenshot/animation of the conceptual design for the color-coding machine. The color-coding process is pretty simple: the operator dumps springs onto the table (blue section) and presses a button to activate the paint nozzle and linear actuator, which moves from left to right. Only the table, slider, and nozzle are present.

Since the amount of spring that needs to be color-coated varies from year to year, there are no limits on the amount of paint we can use. However, we've noticed that our painter oversprays the springs too much. For instance, one spring only needs to have a minimum of 20% of its surface area covered, but our operator covers the entire spring. We meet the minimum requirements from the customer, but there is no need to cover the whole spring (wasting paint). It is very difficult to control the amount of paint we put on the spring, which is why I am designing an automatic painting system to reduce paint usage.

I've never thought about creating my own algorithm. It sounds a bit challenging, but it's worth a shot!

Thank you!

 

[IRstuff]

but our operator covers the entire spring. We meet the minimum requirements from the customer, but there is no need to cover the whole spring (wasting paint).

Is the amount of wasted paint comparable to the cost of automating the system and eliminating the variability due to the operator? Your setup as shown in the animation automatically wastes 50% of your paint, simply from the requirement of covering 4 springs with a single nozzle's spray pattern.

 

[Compositepro]

If it is only for color coding then only a spot spray is needed. A small dabber applicator sponge would be more efficient. Powder coating or dip coating would be best for full coverage. With dip coating you could coat a whole basket of springs at one time so you don't have to handle individual springs. Coating film thickness is controlled by solvent concentration (which could be water).