Digital Coating System for Wear-Resistant Opaque Light-Transmissive Boundaries
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for producing components with contrasting opaque and light-transmissive areas face challenges in maintaining appearance integrity over time due to wear, especially when illuminated and viewed from different sides.
Innovation Solution
A digital coating system utilizing a plurality of digitally controlled nozzles to apply layers of varying thickness, ensuring that the boundary between opaque and light-transmissive areas remains distinct by precisely controlling the flow and drying behavior of liquid droplets, allowing for the creation of components with sharp graduations and homogeneous layers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional coating methods are used to produce components with opaque and light-transmissive areas, then the initial appearance contrast is achieved, but wear occurs over time that degrades the boundary appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different layer thicknesses to different regions of the component surface. Specifically, the boundary region between opaque and light-transmissive areas receives a greater number of droplet layers (higher local quality) compared to other regions. This localized enhancement ensures that the boundary maintains its visual integrity and contrast over time, preventing wear-induced degradation in the most critical area.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a digital droplet delivery system that precisely controls the deposition of coating material before wear occurs. By pre-applying multiple layers of coating material with controlled thickness variations during manufacturing, the system creates a robust boundary structure that is resistant to future wear. The preliminary action of depositing enhanced layers at the boundary ensures long-term appearance integrity without requiring subsequent maintenance.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple layers of coating material are applied to achieve sharp boundaries, then manufacturing precision is improved, but process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical coating systems (such as spray guns, rollers, or dip coating) with a digital droplet delivery system. This system uses electronically controlled nozzles to deposit individual droplets or small groups of droplets at precisely controlled locations. The digital control mechanism allows for programmable variation in droplet size, spacing, and layer count, achieving sharp boundaries through software control rather than complex mechanical adjustments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes digital control to dynamically change coating parameters (droplet size, inter-droplet spacing, number of layers) during the coating process. By programmatically adjusting these parameters, the system can create regions with different layer thicknesses and boundary sharpness without requiring physical reconfiguration of the coating apparatus. This parameter flexibility achieves high manufacturing precision while keeping the physical system relatively simple.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively prevents wear-induced degradation of the appearance boundary between opaque and light-transmissive areas, ensuring long-term visual consistency even after prolonged use.
Implementation Method 1
an application component with a plurality of digitally controlled nozzles (12) which spray off liquid droplets
Implementation Method 2
controlling the flow and drying behavior of liquid droplets
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
A digital coating system comprises at least one application component 10 with several electronically controllable nozzles 12 for spraying liquid droplets, a liquid supply device 50 for feeding the nozzle liquid, a receiving device 26 for receiving an object 22 with a surface 24 to be coated, a drive device 16, 28 for generating a relative movement between the application component and the surface, and an electronic control device 32, which is suitable for controlling the nozzles and the drive device in such a way that, at least on partial areas of the surface, liquid droplets applied next to and on top of each other form a homogeneous layer 34 after the liquid has hardened.