Dürr Systems AG enables accurate automated car painting with its EcoPaintJet

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Global automotive painting technology major Dürr Systems AG has enabled fully automated painting of cars in two colors for the first time with its EcoPaintJet system.

Particularly the small car buyers are increasingly ordering contrasting and accent colors to stand out from the crowd. For the automotive industry, two-tone painting incurs more cost and effort. Not only does it needs more time and energy, but also creates a great deal of waste. With its EcoPaintJet system, Dürr Systems AG presents an automated application solution that ensures an unprecedented level of precision in applying sharp paint lines.

Also, the EcoPaintJet is offering important benefits in the painting of electric cars.

The Eurpoean auto paint technology major has introduced the solution to the public for the first time at an Open House which recently took place at the company’s headquarters in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.

Dr. Jochen Weyrauch, CEO of Dürr Systems AG, says: “The EcoPaintJet is a quantum leap in the journey toward the efficient, two-tone painting of cars. It is the first system to efficiently combine customized product design with automated production.”

Large vehicle production plants paint 300,000 car bodies per year while maintaining a consistently high level of quality. However, adding a contrasting or accent color means a considerable amount of extra work: Once the entire car body has been painted in the basic color, which has then dried and cooled, masking tape must be applied by hand – except for the areas due to be painted in a different color. Then the car body goes back to the painting line, where the second color is applied.

No masking tape 

Dürr’s new process, known as EcoPaintJet, is much more efficient, as it dispenses with the need for masking the car body. This is because of the new applicator, which is fixed to a robot arm and moves over the target area and applies paint with razor sharp lines. It only takes a cycle time of 120 seconds to apply a contrasting color to a car body roof.

Simply to say, when using masking tape, the time required to put on and remove the masking tape alone is about 50 minutes.

The EcoPaintJet is currently being tested at several carmakers’ plants.

Future Development

Meanwhile, Dürr Systems AG is already working on a further development of the technology, which can also paint more complex geometries. This enhanced version, known as EcoPaintJet Pro, enables each hole in the nozzle plate to be opened and closed individually. This offers even more possibilities for product customization. In the future, the automatic application of lettering and logos should also be possible – similar to a digital printer.