Delmia IGRIP™ selected by off-road equipment manufacturer

Citation

(2007), "Delmia IGRIP™ selected by off-road equipment manufacturer", Industrial Robot, Vol. 34 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2007.04934caf.001

Delmia IGRIP™ selected by off-road equipment manufacturer

Delmia IGRIP™ selected by off-road equipment manufacturer

Dassault Systèmes a leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has announced that its Delmia IGRIPe robotic solution and UltraPaint (Figure 1) have been implemented at the Caterpillar facility in Decatur, Ill. to assist in the upgrade of the company's robotic paint production lines where a number of new robots have been installed requiring intensive re-programming.

Figure 1 UltraPaint provides the tools to analyze paint deposition parameters, such as atomization air pressure, fan width, fluid delivery, and TCP speed

In order to deliver the project in a timely manner, it was agreed by all parties that utilizing the Delmia IGRIP software with the UltraPaint add-on was the optimal solution. IGRIP is a physics-based, scalable robotic simulation solution for quick and graphical modeling and off-line programming (OLP) of complex, multi-device robotic workcells for applications such as painting, welding, dispensing, material removal and machine tending. The OLP capability allows users to accurately program robotic systems without tying up physical resources on the factory floor thereby reducing man-hours and process engineering lead-time while improving accuracy.

Included with the UltraPaint is a complete set of painting simulation tools. Spray gun and paint attributes can be entered into the painting device and the results can be graphically displayed in multiple colors illustrating relative film thickness; or exact thickness can be obtained though the uses of a built-in film build gauge. Complex paint booths can be constructed, and multiple robot moving line applications can be simulated.

Additionally, the Realistic Robotic Simulation (RSS) feature allows the IGRIP software to interface with a robot manufacturer's proprietary motion planning software (called an RCS module) to provide greater accuracy in the trajectory motion and cycle time prediction.

The Delmia IGRIP calibration tools let users adjust the simulation model to accurately reflect real world device relationships, while the signature interface enables programmers to easily modify robot devices to gain accurate robot motion. Finally, users download the optimized simulation programs using IGRIP's postprocessors.

In this application, each existing part paint program was simulated in the cell, taking into the consideration the new robots in order to check for reach ability and clearances. With the simulation capability, existing programs could be optimized to gain efficiencies. For example, any unnecessary helicopter moves where the wrist wraps around in a 3608 move and is typically a waste of motion and time were able to be identified and eliminated.