Robot UV Cures Fully Assembled Furniture, Cabinets

EL CAJON, CA - Prime Heat Systems, a wood products curing tunnel system manufacturer, says it has coupled its self-guided PowerCarts with robot-controlled curing lamps to automate three-dimensional curing of assembled furniture and casegoods.

Halogen and UV curing is incorporated in the process. A video shows it in operation.

A system designed for casegoods uses 20 of Prime Heat's PowerCarts to transport 160 to 220 cases per shift through three-stage UV cured finishing. Two robots are used in the UV3D curing room. Water based UV coating requires a 5 to 6 minute cure time before entering the robotic UV room, says Primeheat.

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A Flex Finish system designed for kitchen cabinets uses 20 PowerCarts, two paint booths and a UV cure room to produce 942 to 1,256 finished three-stage pieces - 209 to 280 cabinets per 7.5 hours shift, accoring to Primeheat. Two robots wield the curing lamps in the robotic UV room. PowerCarts are guided by Programmable Logic Controllers, which can be fed details of specific furniture dimensions that they will transport through the curing tunnel.

Carts are powered by a 12 volt battery that is charged on line and use a ¾” high  track to guide them. This eliminates chains or rails on the floor. "The ability to use UV green technology coatings on fully assembled case good products with a 5-minute cure cycle, with less labor and a smaller factory footprint will give a company a major technological and production efficiency advantage in a very competitive world market," says a statement by Prime Heat Systems.