Automated Spray for Manufacturing Processes

• Simonas Simulis
• Paolo Alvarado
• Xun Wang
• Katie Simonic

The purpose of this design project is to improve the efficiency of how a seat panel is joined with covering fabric. Currently at Freedman Seating Co. workers are continuously picking up and setting down the spray gun which is used to join the two materials. The team tasked with this project identified that very same process as the one they will investigate for improving. The approach for an improved system was to come up with the best configuration that allowed for safe and user friendly interactions where the spray gun could be stationary yet interchangeable if needed. The method chosen to improve efficiency is a conveyor belt system that brings the seating panel directly underneath the spray path, activates the spray, and moves the seating panel out, ready for its next step in the manufacturing process. The desired primary outcome is to double production by cutting the previous method’s time for applying glue on the seating panel in half, from 4.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds. The secondary desired outcome of the design is to cut costs. By having a consistent amount of glue applied to each seat panel from sensors and micro-controllers dictating spray times, inconsistencies are eliminated in glue applied from one seating panel to the next. The design criteria of semi automating the gluing process was met in the early stages of development by the sensor and micro-controllers activating the spray gun.