8 ms·

BMW’s New Overspray-Free Paint Works Like an Inkjet Printer

149 points by clouddrover 5y ago

tguvot 5y ago
>BMW’s New Overspray-Free Paint Works Like an Inkjet Printer Does it mean that it won't paint black if it's out of color cartridge ?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
jcims 5y ago
Cool concept, looks super slow relative to exciting assembly plant paint though. Upside is you can buy a plaid car from the factory, downside is it’s +$5k and an extra month lead time.
- joosters 5y ago
  The article claims that it saves money, rather than costing extra.
  - jcims 5y ago
    I think that is relative to custom paint vs existing manual methods. That i would agree with, i just don’t see this replacing single tone paint methods. Which likely wasn't why it was built, so not sure why i'm pointing that out haha.
  - smoyer 5y ago
    Looking at the orange base-coat in the video, I'd suggest it saves money versus hand-painted custom paint jobs but as every surface of the car (inside doors) are orange, I'd say that was applied by the traditional robot painters (with HVLP guns).
  - baron816 5y ago
    It saves BMW money. You still have to pay more.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      I'm trying to think of a company that provides the customer an extra personalization service that did not charge more for it... I got nothing.
      - akiselev 5y ago
        Off the top of my head: tailors embroider the clothing they make for customers and luxury clothing companies like Luis Vuitton engrave the customer's name or a message on products like wallets. IIRC even Apple used to engrave custom messages on some of their products for free.
        tinus_hn 5y ago
        Apple still offers free engraving on selected products: https://www.apple.com/shop/engraving-and-gift-wrap https://www.apple.com/shop/engraving-and-gift-wrap
        SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
        And this still hurts secondary market sales, which may or may not be Apple’s plan, we’ll never know.
        culturestate 5y ago
        I would think that if they were really trying to check the secondary market, they’d allow engraving for iPhones. Surely that’s by far the one that cuts most deeply into the bottom line.
        tinus_hn 5y ago
        That evil Apple with their evil free engraving schemes!
  - jandrese 5y ago
    It saves money in air compressor energy costs, but the article glosses over how long this takes compared to traditional methods. If it takes 10 times as long to paint a car this way then you have to replicate it 10 times in the factory to maintain the same rate of production which could very easily end up costing more. On the other hand, masking is a pain in the ass and takes a lot of time so this could end up being faster all around so long as you're comparing with complex multi-tone paintjobs.
- sen 5y ago
  Considering there's already 6 month waits on new cars, I'd happily throw in an extra month if it meant I got to use an online editor to design my own paint job.
  - wil421 5y ago
    Not sure about the German factories but we ordered an X7 a couple months ago from their Spartanburg, SC plant and it took 3 weeks.
    - karamanolev 5y ago
      Surely $100K+ SUVs are at the top of their production lists? My understanding is that the lower the price, the sooner the shortages hit a car.
  - dweekly 5y ago
    https://cdn.drawception.com/drawings/T25OX7JfsD.png https://cdn.drawception.com/drawings/T25OX7JfsD.png
dkdk8283 5y ago
Is this a new technology or just a new use case for an existing process? Inkjet print heads are very close to the surface being painted but this process appears to have a few inches of clearance. I suspect the paint has additives to help with this process. We didn’t see any color other than black in this demo. The video doesn’t show any close up pictures of the process but it looks novel.
- jjoonathan 5y ago
  I've seen this in UV printers, too (UV = inkjet, but the ink is cured with UV instead of solvent evaporation). I poked around to figure out how they can print from so far away, but couldn't find any sources talking about it, and if printing from ~10cm away needs special tricks to accomplish or not. The one trick I can think of to extend print distance would be increasing the drop size. That would probably be acceptable when printing on cars (the article) or mugs (UV printers) -- is that the trick?
- ezconnect 5y ago
  Industrial inkjet designs can print from a very large distance, what I think is new on this one is using a robot arm to be able to print on different contoured surfaces.
idiotsecant 5y ago
I think the 'no overspray' aspect of this is probably a bit oversold, given that there doesn't appear to be any novel technology here - just close spray through a flow orifice. People who are willing to pay for this kind of service want clean, high contrast lines. Tape does a great job of this, I am skeptical that this can compare. If it does I'm sure it'll be huge though.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  The lines in the video look very comparable to tape lines. Would need to see very close up to be 100% sure but it looks promising.
  - birdman3131 5y ago
    What I notice is they did an outline at a slower and likely higher accuracy mode then came back and filled at a higher speed.
    - rootusrootus 5y ago
      You’re right, good catch!
- robbrown451 5y ago
  Spraying close enough is the challenge, of course. A human obviously couldn't do it.
throwawaysea 5y ago
Given that car factories already use charged paint particles and bodies to minimize paint usage and waste, how useful is the overspray aspect here?
- krasin 5y ago
  >The overspray-free technology also allows vehicles with intricate designs, including two-tone offerings, to be painted faster and cheaper. This is the use case. As a matter of historical anecdote, the very same use case was the motivation to develop painter's tape: https://paintdenver.com/the-history-of-painters-tape/ https://paintdenver.com/the-history-of-painters-tape/
Dylovell 5y ago
Hopefully this develops into a handheld, so I can use this to paint the walls in my house without spending hours taping.
- Freaken 5y ago
  This is electrostatically applied, a bit like powder coating from my understanding, so yeah, it probably won’t work on drywall.
  - omgtehlion 5y ago
    From TFA: > the new method works without electrostatics, relying instead on jet application.
    - Freaken 5y ago
      True, my bad, read the exact opposite.
- omgtehlion 5y ago
  There are a lot of (quite limited) handheld ink printers on aliexpress ))
  - dkdk8283 5y ago
    I searched but didn’t come up with anything I’d buy. Have a link handy?
iratewizard 5y ago
Can this be applied to make those creepy anime cars, but directly onto the body instead of a vinyl wrap?
mothsonasloth 5y ago
Non-OEM paint cartridge detected. Unable to paint car.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Non-approved print medium detected. Please only use BMW approved cars purcharsed through authorized retailers.
  - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
    Error: Selected color or pattern available only to BMW PREMIUM PRO PLUS CUSTOMERS, ask your representative about purchasing options! ERROR:32DLC
    - 0xfaded 5y ago
      lp0 on fire
hownottowrite 5y ago
The technology actually belongs to Dürr. They’ve been building paint shops for BMW for a few years now. https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-technology/paint-application/overspray-free-paint-application https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-tech...
- shoto_io 5y ago
  Yes. You can even see their logo on the robot's arm in the GIF.
amelius 5y ago
It's actually by this company: https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-technology https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-tech...
mkhpalm 5y ago
It will be interesting to see how the paint for this holds up. One thing you'll notice is as companies try to switch from oil to water based paints the bases just don't last. There is also this trend to find ways to put less coats of base and clear down for cost savings. That obviously doesn't last as long either. So whatever they need to run this through the head I have to question if people will be happy with it over time compared to something simple like a sticker.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Many, many Mercedes from the late 90s and early 2000s were sent to an early grave from their absolutely disastrous water-based paint, done in the name of being environmentally friendly. (Mine was one of them after several also not eco-friendly trips to the body shop along the way.) It’s not particularly environmentally friendly to have to make 10 million extra cars to replace those which rusted out prematurely.
  - theluketaylor 5y ago
    That was also the era of Mercedes-Benz using biodegradable insulation on their wiring harnesses and it resulted in all sorts of cars having to be scrapped long before they broke down mechanically.
    - frosted-flakes 5y ago
      Was it because pests chewed on the insulation, or did it actually break down?
      - universenz 5y ago
        Fires, too!
      - numpad0 5y ago
        IIUC like actually biodegraded. Same happened with biodegradable ID cards.
nikkinana 5y ago
Great, now can they make an EV that doesn't suck?
m0zg 5y ago
BMW has officially lost it. With Tesla eating the upper end of its market all they can think of is "kidney cancer" grilles and racing stripes. Folks, you need a competitive EV. Anything else you're doing is bullshit. You know it, your customers (me) know it, and your investors know it as well. There isn't currently a car in BMW's lineup that I, a BMW customer, would want, and no amount of fancy paint or juvenile racing stripes are going to change that. In fact, my next car (Cybertruck) won't have any paint at all.
- clouddrover 5y ago
  > Folks, you need a competitive EV. Here you go. The BMW iX: - https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/bmw/ix https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/bmw/ix - https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/42543/2022-bmw-ix-first-ride-review-a-luxo-ev-that-brakes-like-a-race-car https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/42543/2022-bmw-ix-first-ri... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoWqeaNMJOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoWqeaNMJOM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBU5-2LTKj8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBU5-2LTKj8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtGa72xQhuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtGa72xQhuY
  - m0zg 5y ago
    I did specifically mention "competitive", which this is not. Literally, this is Blackberry against Tesla's "iPhone" - it has no chance except among the most die hard of BMW fans, and it's also goofy looking with its kidney cancer grille.
    - clouddrover 5y ago
      In what way is it not "competitive" with the Tesla Model X?
      - freshpots 5y ago
        Charging infrastructure, battery longevity, experience....shall I continue?
robbrown451 5y ago
This would be amazing if you could do it on a car that already is completed, and could be any make/model including old cars. The trick is that the machine has to know exactly where the surface is, and that would presumably need high precision scanning.
- the_pwner224 5y ago
  Layers of clear coat are applied after the paint layers. To repaint / modify a car you would need to first sand away the clear coat, then apply paint over the existing paint and do color matching (paint fades over time in sunlight; clear coat reduces but doesn't stop this, so a human must blend between the freshly painted area and the existing paint), then refinish with new clear coat. All of this is very labor intensive and requires human experience and judgement. Actually putting the new paint down is a small part of the process and there wouldn't be much to gain by automating it. For things like putting stripes on the car, as shown in the video, vinyl decals are a much better option. A lot can be done with vinyl wraps and decals. Applying them takes some time and human expertise to evenly stretch the vinyl and apply it without bubbles/creases/warping, but the process is very straightfoward compared to painting - you just clean the car and stick on the vinyl with the help of a hair dryer / heat gun. Even for changing the color of your entire car I'm pretty sure wrapping comes out to be cheaper than a good paint job just due to the huge amount of human labor that painting requires (also automotive paint is expensive). And there are some really beautiful colors/effects available in wraps. And a full vinyl wrap is removable - just peel it off - so you can 'undo' the 'repaint' if you use vinyl. However for decorations like stripes, if you've left the decals on for a few years then it'll look ugly if you take them off since the decals will stop the paint under them from fading but the rest of the car's paint will continue to fade from sun/UV exposure, so you'll see the decal's shape 'imprinted' into the car's paint.
  - joshjdr 5y ago
    If only they could invent a robotic sanding process…
    - 5y ago
pronlover723 5y ago
I wonder how this will affect AI self driving what's been trained that cars are mostly solid colors.
- myself248 5y ago
  The "5000x more reliable than a human we swear" AIs that crash into cop cars? It'll go great. Just perfect. No need to worry at all.
hilyen 5y ago
Cool paint tech, they should allow you to make your own design and send it in. They could even have a ladder system that displays most popular contributions.
taf2 5y ago
I just want the option to change my cars paint color dynamically. Today I want a white car… tomorrow black. How about a nice blue
- perl4ever 5y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_vinyl_wrap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_vinyl_wrap
weinzierl 5y ago
The article unfortunately doesn't mention how the new method saves paint. I think the traditional electrostatic method has low losses already. I've been in the BMW paint shop in their Munich plant two times. What I remember is paint going to the vehicle body - and only to the vehicle body. There is no mess at all, the room stays super clean and it has to, because subsequent cars are painted in different colors. There is no extra clean-up when changing colors. It would be interesting to know how the new Inkjet method stacks up against this. One area where I see an advantage is metallic paint. From what I understand, metallic paint isn't applied electrostatically and the losses are higher there.
- kumarvvr 5y ago
  When using stencils, a good amount of paint is wasted on the stencil cover. By precise painting, paint is saved. But, I guess the major saving is reduction in cost of labour to produce stencils, fix them in place, remove them and do corrections.
  - jpgvm 5y ago
    The main money saving yes but there are other savings at play which probably have fairly minimal $ cost but still matter. Like the cost of running the compressed air system, extra clean room filtration etc. Reduction or elimination of these ancillary systems probably also factor into power savings. All in all, just because it might not be cheaper doesn't mean that it's not net positive in other areas.
- karamanolev 5y ago
  Without any in-depth knowledge into painting - my understanding from the article is that this is mostly about two-tone (or more) painting. When you use a masking tape, you overspray and some of it goes onto the tape. If it's an intricate pattern, there's a lost of masking going on. With this method, you reduce/remove the need for masking and spraying over the tape, therefore reducing paint waste.
nmeofthestate 5y ago
It's a shame the article focuses so heavily on the green aspect rather than the process, but I guess BMW doesn't want to give away trade secrets, and this is just a regurgitated press release. For example, what's going on in the first stage of the process where the paint head seems to be drawing but nothing shows up. It's it painting liquid masking tape onto the car? Just thin lines of the same paint? The robot appears to switche paint heads after doing it, suggesting it's maybe a different substance, or maybe just a different spray head.
- MaxikCZ 5y ago
  The head have a laser measurement tool and measures the exact position of the motor hood with sub milimeter precision. Then calculates corrections for its program to apply at the exact spot everytime. Disclaimer: I work robots in paintshops like these. Example: The inside of your car door have plastizol sprayed over whole edge. That is actually sprayed while the doors are (almost) closed (think open as if latched by the lock, but not flush). The nozzle is a 0.5mm wide tube, that makes 3 90° degrees turns (left, right, right), and have opening in the direction pointing back at where it started. When the carbody gets into position, fixed cameras measure preset points to make sure its in right position (wiggle room ~20-100mm). Correction gets computed from that, and robot measure pass program is moved accordingly. Now the measure process is repeated with robot head holding a laser tool, measuring tenths of milimeter deviations, wiggle room ~2mm. If the shape is just moved within tolerances, the robot modifies apply run with corrections from measurement and goes to work. Starting at corner, weaves the nozzle into position and runs along the whole doors (sometimes pulling out and back in at some corners, but some corners are turned without pulling out). Theres usually at least half a millimeter spacing between nozzle and an edge, the precision is maintained even during fast movements. The nozzle is thin and long (5 cm) and easily breaks or bends. Before every spray run the tool itself is measured (and the correction is computed and used), and used only if its not bent out of tolerance. If the tool is found faulty, robot can hotplug another nozzle (have like 5 ready), measure it and go fully autonomously.
  - mch82 5y ago
    Does it require a CAD model of the panels? Wondering if an inkjet process like this is possible on handmade, custom and restoration panels.
Factorium 5y ago
Why not just make them from stainless steel like the cybertruck?
yobbo 5y ago
The orange car in the picture seems to have already been dipped in coating and maybe "baked", and then painted with orange "aerosolized" paint. The inside of the car has orange overspray all over, and where it is thin we see the brighter yellow undercoat. Basically, this is a way to print graphics on an already painted car.
leoh 5y ago
Knowing BMW, it probably won't be available for 5-10 years and will cost an extra $10k+ for customisations.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

149 points by clouddrover 5y ago

>BMW’s New Overspray-Free Paint Works Like an Inkjet Printer Does it mean that it won't paint black if it's out of color cartridge ?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

jcims 5y ago

Cool concept, looks super slow relative to exciting assembly plant paint though. Upside is you can buy a plaid car from the factory, downside is it’s +$5k and an extra month lead time.

joosters 5y ago
The article claims that it saves money, rather than costing extra.
- jcims 5y ago
  I think that is relative to custom paint vs existing manual methods. That i would agree with, i just don’t see this replacing single tone paint methods. Which likely wasn't why it was built, so not sure why i'm pointing that out haha.
- smoyer 5y ago
  Looking at the orange base-coat in the video, I'd suggest it saves money versus hand-painted custom paint jobs but as every surface of the car (inside doors) are orange, I'd say that was applied by the traditional robot painters (with HVLP guns).
- baron816 5y ago
  It saves BMW money. You still have to pay more.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    I'm trying to think of a company that provides the customer an extra personalization service that did not charge more for it... I got nothing.
    - akiselev 5y ago
      Off the top of my head: tailors embroider the clothing they make for customers and luxury clothing companies like Luis Vuitton engrave the customer's name or a message on products like wallets. IIRC even Apple used to engrave custom messages on some of their products for free.
      - tinus_hn 5y ago
        Apple still offers free engraving on selected products: https://www.apple.com/shop/engraving-and-gift-wrap https://www.apple.com/shop/engraving-and-gift-wrap
        SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
        And this still hurts secondary market sales, which may or may not be Apple’s plan, we’ll never know.
        culturestate 5y ago
        I would think that if they were really trying to check the secondary market, they’d allow engraving for iPhones. Surely that’s by far the one that cuts most deeply into the bottom line.
        tinus_hn 5y ago
        That evil Apple with their evil free engraving schemes!
- jandrese 5y ago
  It saves money in air compressor energy costs, but the article glosses over how long this takes compared to traditional methods. If it takes 10 times as long to paint a car this way then you have to replicate it 10 times in the factory to maintain the same rate of production which could very easily end up costing more. On the other hand, masking is a pain in the ass and takes a lot of time so this could end up being faster all around so long as you're comparing with complex multi-tone paintjobs.
sen 5y ago
Considering there's already 6 month waits on new cars, I'd happily throw in an extra month if it meant I got to use an online editor to design my own paint job.
- wil421 5y ago
  Not sure about the German factories but we ordered an X7 a couple months ago from their Spartanburg, SC plant and it took 3 weeks.
  - karamanolev 5y ago
    Surely $100K+ SUVs are at the top of their production lists? My understanding is that the lower the price, the sooner the shortages hit a car.
- dweekly 5y ago
  https://cdn.drawception.com/drawings/T25OX7JfsD.png https://cdn.drawception.com/drawings/T25OX7JfsD.png

dkdk8283 5y ago

Is this a new technology or just a new use case for an existing process? Inkjet print heads are very close to the surface being painted but this process appears to have a few inches of clearance. I suspect the paint has additives to help with this process. We didn’t see any color other than black in this demo. The video doesn’t show any close up pictures of the process but it looks novel.

jjoonathan 5y ago
I've seen this in UV printers, too (UV = inkjet, but the ink is cured with UV instead of solvent evaporation). I poked around to figure out how they can print from so far away, but couldn't find any sources talking about it, and if printing from ~10cm away needs special tricks to accomplish or not. The one trick I can think of to extend print distance would be increasing the drop size. That would probably be acceptable when printing on cars (the article) or mugs (UV printers) -- is that the trick?
ezconnect 5y ago
Industrial inkjet designs can print from a very large distance, what I think is new on this one is using a robot arm to be able to print on different contoured surfaces.

idiotsecant 5y ago

I think the 'no overspray' aspect of this is probably a bit oversold, given that there doesn't appear to be any novel technology here - just close spray through a flow orifice. People who are willing to pay for this kind of service want clean, high contrast lines. Tape does a great job of this, I am skeptical that this can compare. If it does I'm sure it'll be huge though.

rootusrootus 5y ago
The lines in the video look very comparable to tape lines. Would need to see very close up to be 100% sure but it looks promising.
- birdman3131 5y ago
  What I notice is they did an outline at a slower and likely higher accuracy mode then came back and filled at a higher speed.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    You’re right, good catch!
robbrown451 5y ago
Spraying close enough is the challenge, of course. A human obviously couldn't do it.

throwawaysea 5y ago

Given that car factories already use charged paint particles and bodies to minimize paint usage and waste, how useful is the overspray aspect here?

krasin 5y ago
>The overspray-free technology also allows vehicles with intricate designs, including two-tone offerings, to be painted faster and cheaper. This is the use case. As a matter of historical anecdote, the very same use case was the motivation to develop painter's tape: https://paintdenver.com/the-history-of-painters-tape/ https://paintdenver.com/the-history-of-painters-tape/

Dylovell 5y ago

Hopefully this develops into a handheld, so I can use this to paint the walls in my house without spending hours taping.

Freaken 5y ago
This is electrostatically applied, a bit like powder coating from my understanding, so yeah, it probably won’t work on drywall.
- omgtehlion 5y ago
  From TFA: > the new method works without electrostatics, relying instead on jet application.
  - Freaken 5y ago
    True, my bad, read the exact opposite.
omgtehlion 5y ago
There are a lot of (quite limited) handheld ink printers on aliexpress ))
- dkdk8283 5y ago
  I searched but didn’t come up with anything I’d buy. Have a link handy?

iratewizard 5y ago

Can this be applied to make those creepy anime cars, but directly onto the body instead of a vinyl wrap?

mothsonasloth 5y ago

Non-OEM paint cartridge detected. Unable to paint car.

dylan604 5y ago
Non-approved print medium detected. Please only use BMW approved cars purcharsed through authorized retailers.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
  Error: Selected color or pattern available only to BMW PREMIUM PRO PLUS CUSTOMERS, ask your representative about purchasing options! ERROR:32DLC
  - 0xfaded 5y ago
    lp0 on fire

hownottowrite 5y ago

The technology actually belongs to Dürr. They’ve been building paint shops for BMW for a few years now. https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-technology/paint-application/overspray-free-paint-application https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-tech...

shoto_io 5y ago
Yes. You can even see their logo on the robot's arm in the GIF.

amelius 5y ago

It's actually by this company: https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-technology https://www.durr.com/en/products/paint-shop-application-tech...

mkhpalm 5y ago

It will be interesting to see how the paint for this holds up. One thing you'll notice is as companies try to switch from oil to water based paints the bases just don't last. There is also this trend to find ways to put less coats of base and clear down for cost savings. That obviously doesn't last as long either. So whatever they need to run this through the head I have to question if people will be happy with it over time compared to something simple like a sticker.

sokoloff 5y ago
Many, many Mercedes from the late 90s and early 2000s were sent to an early grave from their absolutely disastrous water-based paint, done in the name of being environmentally friendly. (Mine was one of them after several also not eco-friendly trips to the body shop along the way.) It’s not particularly environmentally friendly to have to make 10 million extra cars to replace those which rusted out prematurely.
- theluketaylor 5y ago
  That was also the era of Mercedes-Benz using biodegradable insulation on their wiring harnesses and it resulted in all sorts of cars having to be scrapped long before they broke down mechanically.
  - frosted-flakes 5y ago
    Was it because pests chewed on the insulation, or did it actually break down?
    - universenz 5y ago
      Fires, too!
    - numpad0 5y ago
      IIUC like actually biodegraded. Same happened with biodegradable ID cards.

nikkinana 5y ago

Great, now can they make an EV that doesn't suck?

m0zg 5y ago

BMW has officially lost it. With Tesla eating the upper end of its market all they can think of is "kidney cancer" grilles and racing stripes. Folks, you need a competitive EV. Anything else you're doing is bullshit. You know it, your customers (me) know it, and your investors know it as well. There isn't currently a car in BMW's lineup that I, a BMW customer, would want, and no amount of fancy paint or juvenile racing stripes are going to change that. In fact, my next car (Cybertruck) won't have any paint at all.

clouddrover 5y ago
> Folks, you need a competitive EV. Here you go. The BMW iX: - https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/bmw/ix https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/bmw/ix - https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/42543/2022-bmw-ix-first-ride-review-a-luxo-ev-that-brakes-like-a-race-car https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/42543/2022-bmw-ix-first-ri... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoWqeaNMJOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoWqeaNMJOM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBU5-2LTKj8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBU5-2LTKj8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtGa72xQhuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtGa72xQhuY
- m0zg 5y ago
  I did specifically mention "competitive", which this is not. Literally, this is Blackberry against Tesla's "iPhone" - it has no chance except among the most die hard of BMW fans, and it's also goofy looking with its kidney cancer grille.
  - clouddrover 5y ago
    In what way is it not "competitive" with the Tesla Model X?
    - freshpots 5y ago
      Charging infrastructure, battery longevity, experience....shall I continue?

robbrown451 5y ago

This would be amazing if you could do it on a car that already is completed, and could be any make/model including old cars. The trick is that the machine has to know exactly where the surface is, and that would presumably need high precision scanning.

the_pwner224 5y ago
Layers of clear coat are applied after the paint layers. To repaint / modify a car you would need to first sand away the clear coat, then apply paint over the existing paint and do color matching (paint fades over time in sunlight; clear coat reduces but doesn't stop this, so a human must blend between the freshly painted area and the existing paint), then refinish with new clear coat. All of this is very labor intensive and requires human experience and judgement. Actually putting the new paint down is a small part of the process and there wouldn't be much to gain by automating it. For things like putting stripes on the car, as shown in the video, vinyl decals are a much better option. A lot can be done with vinyl wraps and decals. Applying them takes some time and human expertise to evenly stretch the vinyl and apply it without bubbles/creases/warping, but the process is very straightfoward compared to painting - you just clean the car and stick on the vinyl with the help of a hair dryer / heat gun. Even for changing the color of your entire car I'm pretty sure wrapping comes out to be cheaper than a good paint job just due to the huge amount of human labor that painting requires (also automotive paint is expensive). And there are some really beautiful colors/effects available in wraps. And a full vinyl wrap is removable - just peel it off - so you can 'undo' the 'repaint' if you use vinyl. However for decorations like stripes, if you've left the decals on for a few years then it'll look ugly if you take them off since the decals will stop the paint under them from fading but the rest of the car's paint will continue to fade from sun/UV exposure, so you'll see the decal's shape 'imprinted' into the car's paint.
- joshjdr 5y ago
  If only they could invent a robotic sanding process…
  - 5y ago

pronlover723 5y ago

I wonder how this will affect AI self driving what's been trained that cars are mostly solid colors.

myself248 5y ago
The "5000x more reliable than a human we swear" AIs that crash into cop cars? It'll go great. Just perfect. No need to worry at all.

hilyen 5y ago

Cool paint tech, they should allow you to make your own design and send it in. They could even have a ladder system that displays most popular contributions.

taf2 5y ago

I just want the option to change my cars paint color dynamically. Today I want a white car… tomorrow black. How about a nice blue

perl4ever 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_vinyl_wrap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_vinyl_wrap

weinzierl 5y ago

The article unfortunately doesn't mention how the new method saves paint. I think the traditional electrostatic method has low losses already. I've been in the BMW paint shop in their Munich plant two times. What I remember is paint going to the vehicle body - and only to the vehicle body. There is no mess at all, the room stays super clean and it has to, because subsequent cars are painted in different colors. There is no extra clean-up when changing colors. It would be interesting to know how the new Inkjet method stacks up against this. One area where I see an advantage is metallic paint. From what I understand, metallic paint isn't applied electrostatically and the losses are higher there.

kumarvvr 5y ago
When using stencils, a good amount of paint is wasted on the stencil cover. By precise painting, paint is saved. But, I guess the major saving is reduction in cost of labour to produce stencils, fix them in place, remove them and do corrections.
- jpgvm 5y ago
  The main money saving yes but there are other savings at play which probably have fairly minimal $ cost but still matter. Like the cost of running the compressed air system, extra clean room filtration etc. Reduction or elimination of these ancillary systems probably also factor into power savings. All in all, just because it might not be cheaper doesn't mean that it's not net positive in other areas.
karamanolev 5y ago
Without any in-depth knowledge into painting - my understanding from the article is that this is mostly about two-tone (or more) painting. When you use a masking tape, you overspray and some of it goes onto the tape. If it's an intricate pattern, there's a lost of masking going on. With this method, you reduce/remove the need for masking and spraying over the tape, therefore reducing paint waste.

nmeofthestate 5y ago

It's a shame the article focuses so heavily on the green aspect rather than the process, but I guess BMW doesn't want to give away trade secrets, and this is just a regurgitated press release. For example, what's going on in the first stage of the process where the paint head seems to be drawing but nothing shows up. It's it painting liquid masking tape onto the car? Just thin lines of the same paint? The robot appears to switche paint heads after doing it, suggesting it's maybe a different substance, or maybe just a different spray head.

MaxikCZ 5y ago
The head have a laser measurement tool and measures the exact position of the motor hood with sub milimeter precision. Then calculates corrections for its program to apply at the exact spot everytime. Disclaimer: I work robots in paintshops like these. Example: The inside of your car door have plastizol sprayed over whole edge. That is actually sprayed while the doors are (almost) closed (think open as if latched by the lock, but not flush). The nozzle is a 0.5mm wide tube, that makes 3 90° degrees turns (left, right, right), and have opening in the direction pointing back at where it started. When the carbody gets into position, fixed cameras measure preset points to make sure its in right position (wiggle room ~20-100mm). Correction gets computed from that, and robot measure pass program is moved accordingly. Now the measure process is repeated with robot head holding a laser tool, measuring tenths of milimeter deviations, wiggle room ~2mm. If the shape is just moved within tolerances, the robot modifies apply run with corrections from measurement and goes to work. Starting at corner, weaves the nozzle into position and runs along the whole doors (sometimes pulling out and back in at some corners, but some corners are turned without pulling out). Theres usually at least half a millimeter spacing between nozzle and an edge, the precision is maintained even during fast movements. The nozzle is thin and long (5 cm) and easily breaks or bends. Before every spray run the tool itself is measured (and the correction is computed and used), and used only if its not bent out of tolerance. If the tool is found faulty, robot can hotplug another nozzle (have like 5 ready), measure it and go fully autonomously.
- mch82 5y ago
  Does it require a CAD model of the panels? Wondering if an inkjet process like this is possible on handmade, custom and restoration panels.

Factorium 5y ago

Why not just make them from stainless steel like the cybertruck?

yobbo 5y ago

The orange car in the picture seems to have already been dipped in coating and maybe "baked", and then painted with orange "aerosolized" paint. The inside of the car has orange overspray all over, and where it is thin we see the brighter yellow undercoat. Basically, this is a way to print graphics on an already painted car.

leoh 5y ago

Knowing BMW, it probably won't be available for 5-10 years and will cost an extra $10k+ for customisations.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]