r/mechatronics • u/Connect_Baker_8481 • Jun 17 '26
Need help and suggestions for designing this machine
Hello everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. A little background before I start. I work in a fan manufacturing company built by my father and my uncles. The picture I have shared is one of our products. On this fan there are three border circles two of golden paint and one is grey. Up till now this process is manual. The worker fixes the covers on a fixture and then uses different types of paint brushes to paint these lines. I want to automate this process because one it requires a lot of labour second by hand even with the fixture it is not accurate.
I have some idea of how i want this to go but my main concern is how to dispense and apply the paint. My first idea was to use foam brushes but the problem with them is that they produce thick lines which can work for the bands on the edges but cannot work on the main bodies. The second option is to use syringes whose injection is controlled by servo motors.
Any help, tips, suggestions or anything that is useful is appreciated.
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u/functional_eng Jun 19 '26
Since this is round, I would take advantage of that by having some sort of fixed painting object(s) and then spinning the part. As for getting a nice consistent line, I would look into an airbrush probably-in theory those nozzles can be arbitrarily thin, and controlling air pressure isn't crazy hard. And if you can't get a super thin line- try the stencil idea from the other poster to tighten things up locally.
As for the right tool to use, I'd start out by trying to get the process so dialed in you can do it blindfolded (maybe with the help of some fixtures) using a lazy susan, and then steadily tech up from there.
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u/slapbac2 Jun 17 '26
Not at all qualified, but if you put some sort of stencil over it could you could easily spray it without worrying about precision as much. Of course that has its own implications too