Application of robot offline programming in thermal spraying

Nowadays, robot manipulators have already been widely used in thermal spraying. They can be programmed in two ways: online and offline programming. The first programming method is easy to operate but difficult to guarantee the quality of coatings, especially for some complex workpieces. The offline programming technology is a good solution that can overcome the online programming tolerances by using the CAD files of the workpiece.The purpose of this study is to introduce the current applications of offline programming technology in thermal spraying, including some popular methods of path generation, process simulation, robot kinematics optimization, etc. In the last part of this paper, two examples of offline programming in thermal spraying were presented which refer to the trajectory optimization on a workpiece with a great angle and path generation on the complex workpiece with external axis. The simulations and experiments have proved that offline programming can effectively improve the production efficiency and coating quality.

► Robots are increasingly used in thermal spraying.
► Reliability and functional properties of the coating can be improved by using robots.
► Online programming method is easy to operate but difficult to ensure coating quality.
► Offline programming provides the possibility to realize complex trajectories on free-form workpieces.
► Offline programming is indispensable to reach the desired coating properties.