Aircraft Tooling, a Texas-based repair center for the aviation industry, was surprised to find that the UR robots could withstand high temperatures and harsh environments while performing metal powder and plasma spray processes. The cobots have now been in operation for three years without breakdown or service requirements.
The business transformation
Aircraft Tooling Inc. (ATI) was looking into automating repair tasks involving new HVOF (High Velocity Oxygen Fuel) and plasma spray on parts as required within the aviation industry. Juan Puente, thermal spray supervisor with ATI, had initially been recommended to purchase traditional industrial robots but what he found did not meet ATI’s needs.
“The cost was outrageous, the cast iron models we looked at were too bulky, we could not easily move them between cells, they were hard to program, and all required safety guarding, which would not work in our small spray cells,” he says.
