[imp!]

I recently got some paint work done at a ASS and was distinctly unhappy with the quality of workmanship and was looking for ways to rectify the paint job.

This got me thinking about the paint process done at the factory using Paint Robots. All else being equal, Robots will always be able to give the same level of refinish unlike manual painting which is dependent on the skill of the painter.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine and he says the same that if there was an option to get robotic painting (if priced competitively or on par with manual painting) then he’d go that route.

What do you guys think?

[androdev]

If you are happy with the paint match, you should consider yourself lucky. You can ask them to redo to get proper finish - it's not that hard.

Robotic painting is not viable IMO.

-Most reputed paint shops are able to achieve good finish. However paint match is very difficult for old cars and robots are not going to be of much help.

-Robots need to be programmed for paint formula and shape of the painting area - a very highly skilled/expensive job not at all suitable for a repair shop where each job comes with its own unique requirements.

-It's not enough to buy these $$$ Robots, their maintenance will be unimaginably expensive.

RoI will be very poor, especially in India where even luxury car owners are not willing to open up their wallet.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by imp!

I was discussing this with a friend of mine and he says the same that if there was an option to get robotic painting (if priced competitively or on par with manual painting) then he’d go that route.

What do you guys think?

I have had similar thoughts before on why hasnt there been instances of body shops using robots to replicate what the factory robots do for painting a panel. I’m no expert in the field of body work but have extensively seen different shops finish various cars across the world thanks to Social media. What I realised is it’s not just the robot that would make a huge difference. Its what happens from the denting process, surface preparation, colour matching, painting process, quality of the materials, quality of tools and the overall sterile environment. The robot only contributes to a very even and consistent paint spread. So this would only solve a part of the whole problem which a skilled and passionate painter could easily replicate, at a fraction of the cost.

Recently I got my Crysta painted - while they did a great job with colour matching and spray, they did an average job with surface preparation which led to a slight wavy finish. Here a robot couldn’t have done much of a difference.

Next is the cost aspect - Such robots are insanely expensive and unless its utilized almost all the time and repeats the same job, it wont be economically viable. Few years ago for our company we brought robots from Kuka which is a leading manufacturer. Each robot was upwards of 50L rupees. Imagine how this amount could be recovered in a body shop. And the robot does not really replace labor. So the robot is an additional cost and even if you consider a 1k rupee premium per panel just because there is a robotic process, you have to paint 5000 panels just to recover the cost of the robot. Considering a best case of painting five panels a day, it will take 1000 days straight to recover the cost. Now imagine how many variables will change. Thats why no one has tried it at least to my knowledge.

[Gupts007]

In my experience paintjobs at any ASS (read Maruti) are sub par. I've always had much better results with some skilled painters who run dedicated denting painting shops. Of course getting a factory finish is next to impossible, unless you are replacing the panel and therefore there is no putty filling on it and secondly the paintjob is done by a skilled guy in a heated paint booth using top grade ingredients.

[Jeroen]

I don't think it is feasible at least not any time soon. Robots need programming. Robots are extremely effective when spraying a complete car from New. And it's not the spraying that takes a lot of time either!

Respraying parts of a Fender and so on takes a lot of experience and skills that is difficult to program a robot with. Every job needs a different programming most likely.

When it comes to costs, it is not the amount of spray hours that make repairs expensive. It is the prepping, filling, filing and masking. And after the spraying there is usually still some rubbing down and or polishing required.

Take my Jeep on which I had both wings and the bonnet resprayed. The actual amount of time the guy spend out there with his spray gun was less than half an hour. But it tool almost 8 hours of prepping and another 1, 5 hours of finishing once it had been sprayed.


I can honestly say that here in the West, any decent repair and painshop will do an outstanding job. There is absolutely no way you can tell the old paint versus newly repaired and resprayed bits. Not in colour, texture or anything. The only way to tell is with a paint thickness measuring tool. The original coat of paint is always thinner than the respray.

Jeroen

[GTO]

Robots are insanely expensive, need a lot of real estate space, need programming, maintenance etc. It's an answer to a problem no one has. Good dealer paint booths & aftermarket shops do very high-quality repainting. You need to find a good paint shop, not a robot.

[greyhound82]

Normally an industrial robot with 1.4m reach from ABB with a controller will cost anywhere around 30-40 lakhs along with this you should take into account fixtures, safety curtains, end effectors for painting, integrated automation, model-wise customisation( which I think is insanely difficult).

The investment in robots is meant to employ for scale with accuracy but here your ROI will take years and endless programming for every new model

For a comparison, an automated paint defect detection system which employs 2 ABB robots and a complex 3d scanning system with out programming for specific model will cost around 12 cr.

[Guru_Shikhar]

The days are not far away when there will be an option to paint the car in robotic paint booths outside oem. It is a complex process, needs programming, heavy investment ( not only robots but one will also need to buy a gantry system to slide the robots to accommodate length of the vehicles and cover all sides which is few more lakh rupees ); still I feel there will be an option in future with the help of AI making the process easier for robotic painting.

Just like the way market evolved for many things available in lux cars now available in budget cars.

It is difficult but surely going to be kicking in.

Voted Yes!

Cheers

[abaliga]

I dont see a need for robots here, panel dimensions vary across vehicles and getting to program robots for cars from different manufacturers or even the same manufacturer will be an expensive affair, following are my thoughts

- Experienced painters can refinish a surface as good as new as long as the products used to refinish are of top grades

- Denting is an art that most denters are able to acheive only after years on the job, this is a crucial step which decides the quality of finish

- Based on my experience in dealing with dents, I firmly believe that replacing dented panels where dent is bigger than say a cricket ball is the best practice, I have noticed lot of owners do not prefer replacing panels, trying to retain the original panel with large dents ends up in a wavy finish irrespective of the denters expertise

- VW/Skoda have very good quality replacement panels with factory sealant applied, I guess this is the same for luxury marques, some of the Japanese and Korean manufacturers (Lexus is an exception) do not have the sealant on the replacement door panels.

- Matching the paint shade is tricky in some cases, I am struggling to finding a match for the paint shade of our 2023 Octavia (Candy white) that had minor scratches acquired in a parking lot, the door has been painted twice just because I was not satisfied with the shade, note that my painter/detailer has a comprehensive mixing rack with paint shades from Glasurit (BASF), unfortunately for me, the Octavia has 8-9 variants of Candy White and all look pretty much the same after mixing, but when painted the difference is quite noticeable, we have even tried sending the fuel cap to the BASF lab and matching it with spectrometer for the second round, but I can still notice a difference in the shade, my painter will be sending the fuel cap back to BASF lab to further refine the match and looks like I will need to spend on getting the panel painted the third time! With my OCD, unfortunately, I cannot live with a panel that has noticeable difference in the shade, that too on a car that was a dream until we realized it!

[HighOnSpeed]

Why would someone prefer a robotic paintwork finish? Almost all cars painted at the factory have an orange-peel effect. The work that is done by hand will always be of superior quality(provided it is done by a skilled person).
Just approach a reputed paintshop at your city/town and get the work done. Some shops have in-house colour matching and others have a paint suppliers who will match it as per the OEM shade.
If it is a small dent and there is no damage done to the paint, you can explore getting paintless dent removal(PDR) as well.

[Ravi Parwan]

How about having plastic panels instead of metal? kind of like the tailgate for XUV700? I haven't heard much from BHPians after the initial furor around plastic panels. Insights into the possibility of replacing more body panels with plastic instead of metal will be welcome, given the potential to absorb and self correct minor damage. So all we are left with is paint correction, where required.

[HighOnSpeed]

Originally Posted by Ravi Parwan

How about having plastic panels instead of metal? kind of like the tailgate for XUV700?

Though it is technically a thermoset plastic (fiberglass + thermoset resin). This is a good option due to its properties like light-weight, rust-free, dent-resistance, etc., but also a much less cost effective option. So it is not feasible to replace metal entirely with fiberglass parts. It is also not suitable for industrial scale of operation due to the low rate of productivity for manufacturing the panels as opposed to metal.

[Cresterk]

You can get a manual paint job that is even better than what a non-luxury / non-exotic car came with from the factory. Dealerships just don’t bother to hire a decent painter. They just hire whoever is willing to work for the longest hours for the cheapest pay. Anyone decently skilled will leave and start their own 3rd party garage the moment they get some experience at it.

[IshaanIan]

It is all about the paint systems that are being used every step of the way from water based paint to electrostatically charged surface preparation. The cost of such a setup can only be afforded by manufacturers unless we as a market up our budgets.

[kiredd1005]

I voted yes, I'd prefer to get my car painted by a robot any day over manual painting. Like someone mentioned, the market is surely evolving and there might be someone who will offer robotic painting outside OEMs one day. A few friends work in the painting robot manufacturing companies and they say that it surely achievable but might be expensive to set up initially. Given the benefits, the cost of painting a panel might actually reduce if done in higher volumes and achieve profitability too.

My past experience with manual painting (all at ASC only) has been more or less disappointing. They either don't get the colour mixing right or the surface refinish looks extremely tardy. But I have seen some independent workshops offer much better quality than ASCs. The only downside is that the independent workshops (or manual painting in general anywhere) won't be able to deliver consistent results day in and day out. I remember one instance where at a Toyota ASC, I overheard the body shop manager sharing in confidence with another disgruntled customer that the surface refinish sometimes depends on the mood of the painter on the day he paints. Painters tend to be grumpy for the most trivial reasons and they sometimes deliberately ruin the refinish just to piss off the manager if they are at loggerheads with each other.