Patent ID: 7686910

Claim:
A method for the automated application of a self-adhesive paint film to a bodywork part secured in a defined position using a freely programmable industrial robot provided with an application tool, the paint film being held ready in a multi-layered film composite in a further defined position in the working region of the industrial robot for picking up into the application tool using suction grippers, the multi-layered film including a protective strip on an adhesive side of the paint film and being provided with a contact piece attached on an end side, the protective strip being grasped at the contact piece and removed from the paint film, the paint film being held taut, and the adhesive side is thus exposed and the paint film being held taut being aligned in a precise distance position above the bodywork part to be covered, and, from a visible side of the paint film, with the paint film held in a fixed position over the bodywork part to be covered, the paint film is pressed progressively onto the bodywork part from the spaced-apart, taut position owing to a line of application moving over the paint film, the method comprising: securing a rectangular section of the multilayered film composite protruding on all sides over the bodywork portion to be covered on all four sides in the application tool; removing the protective strip on the adhesive side from the paint film in a complete manner with a stationary gripper or gripper rollers, and as the paint film is pressed on in a pressing-on operation, keeping the paint film under tensile stress at least transversely to the direction of the pressing-on operation as the pressing on operation continues.