Automatic robot trajectory generation for thermal spray applications is considered necessary for advanced automatic manufacturing. Achieving coating uniformity on the free-form surfaces is the principal challenge due to the complexity of their geometries. The purpose of this study is to develop a new function of Thermal Spray Toolkit with user-friendly interface for automatic generation of robot trajectory on the irregular workpieces according to the spray parameters, such as the torch speed, the spray distance, the spray angle, etc. This software toolkit is based on RobotStudio which is an off-line programming and simulation software by ABB company. The results showed that the robot trajectories can be generated rapidly, accurately and automatically on the free-form surfaces by using Thermal Spray Toolkit.

Thermal Spray Toolkit (TST) is an extended program (Add-in) of RobotStudio which is off-line programming software of ABB Company. The Thermal Spay Toolkit can generate the robot trajectories rapidly, accurately and automatically for most workpieces with a simple and regular form. In recent years, the growing demand for spraying workpiece of various shapes provides a strong motivation to develop new functions to Thermal Spray Toolkit. This paper describes the development of thermal spray toolkit and presents new functions: robotic trajectory auto-generation for complicated surfaces and the optimization of trajectory. Furthermore, many simulations are implemented to optimize trajectory in RobotStudio. Compared to the former thermal spraying without applying this toolkit, the coating quality is improved greatly. These results demonstrate that the new functions are reliable and efficient.