Patent ID: 9446426
Filing Date: 2016-09-20
CPC Classification: B05B,B05C,B05D,B25J,B41J,G05B

Claim Text:
1. A device for painting a curved outer surface of an aircraft comprising: a plurality of different base color supply units containing polyurethane aircraft paint; a paint applicator having a plurality of spray painting heads each assigned to one of the plurality of different base color supply units, each of the plurality of spray painting heads having an aperture of 0.5 to 1.2 mm and the polyurethane aircraft paint ejected from the apertures having a maximum particle size of 0.1 mm, each of the plurality of spray painting heads being configured to eject the particles in a flowing fashion; a spatially adjustable positioning device configured to move the paint applicator relative to the curved outer surface; at least one sensor device configured to determine a three-dimensional geometry of the curved outer surface, the sensor device including a laser measuring head disposed on the paint applicator; and a control unit coordinating a movement of the positioning device with a paint output of the paint applicator, wherein the control unit is configured to alternately activate each of the plurality of spray painting heads so as to produce a picture motif and to derive a two-dimensional driving geometry based on the three-dimensional geometry determined by the at least one sensor device, said two-dimensional geometry to be used by a secondary control unit of the paint applicator while driving the positioning device according to said three-dimensional geometry, wherein the laser measuring head is connected to an input side of the control unit and specifies current distance values to be used by the control unit as actual values in order to coordinate the movement of the positioning device with respect to a nominal distance from the outer surface of the aircraft that lies within the range of a desired paint application quality, and wherein the control unit coordinates movement the movement of the positioning device using the feed pressure for the spray painting heads, a nozzle cross section of the spray painting heads, and the viscosity of the polyurethane aircraft.