Patent ID: 7687099

Claim:
A spray coating apparatus comprising: a spray gun moveable relative to a surface and operable to deposit a sprayed coating via a spray nozzle onto the surface, a mapping apparatus associated with the spray gun and including both an image projection device which in operation projects an image onto the surface and an image recognition device that views the image projected onto the surface, and ascertains topographical characteristics of the surface from the size and shape of the image, and that stores said characteristics; a position sensor operable to ascertain the position of the spray gun relative to the surface, a coating thickness monitor operable to ascertain the thickness of a coating applied to the surface while the coating is being deposited, and a nozzle controller that controls deposition of the sprayed coating, wherein the nozzle controller controls the deposition of the sprayed coating in response to information provided by the position sensor, the coating thickness monitor and the mapping apparatus.