Coating machine

A coating machine, which performs coating by spraying paint from a nozzle, comprising:

• a robot arm having a chuck at a front end;
• a nozzle head unit detachably mounted on the chuck and including:
• a nozzle head having a nozzle configured to spray the paint, a nozzle control unit configured to control driving of the nozzle, and a head-side circulation path configured to enable the paint to circulate within the nozzle head, wherein the nozzle head, the nozzle control unit and the head-side circulation path are integrally configured and detachably mounted with respect to the chuck, and wherein the head-side circulation path is contained within the nozzle head unit;
• a standby holding unit that holds at least one second nozzle head unit in a standby state;
• and
• a head replacement unit that replaces the nozzle head unit mounted on the chuck with the at least one second nozzle head unit held by the standby holding unit,
• the robot arm is provided with a color changing valve, the color changing valve having a paint storage unit that stores paint of each color and enabling color changing so that a chosen paint can be supplied to the nozzle head;
• and
• the robot arm is provided with an arm-side circulation path that enables flow of the paint;
• the arm-side circulation path is provided with an arm-side supply path and an arm-side return path, the arm-side supply path supplying the paint from the color changing valve towards the head-side circulation path, and the arm-side return path causing the paint not sprayed from the nozzle to return from the head-side circulation path and supplying the paint towards the arm-side supply path again;
• the robot arm or the nozzle head unit is provided with a pressure adjustment unit and a main body control unit, the pressure adjustment unit regulating pressures of the paint flowing from the color changing valve via the arm-side supply path to the head-side circulation path, and the main body control unit controlling actuations of the color changing valve and the pressure adjustment unit;
• based on actuation controlling of the color changing valve and the pressure adjustment unit by the main body control unit, the paint circulates between the head-side circulation path and the color changing valve via the arm-side supply path and the arm-side return path.

A coating machine, which performs coating by spraying paint from a nozzle, comprising:

• a robot arm having a chuck at a front end;
• a nozzle head unit detachably mounted on the chuck and including:
• a nozzle head having a nozzle configured to spray the paint, a nozzle control unit configured to control driving of the nozzle, and a head-side circulation path configured to enable the paint to circulate within the nozzle head, wherein the nozzle head, the nozzle control unit and the head-side circulation path are integrally configured and detachably mounted with respect to the chuck, wherein the nozzle head unit is provided with a paint storage unit storing the paint sprayed from the nozzle, and wherein the paint storage unit is connected to the head-side circulation path, in a state in which the paint is able to be supplied;
• a standby holding unit that holds at least one second nozzle head unit in a standby state;
• and
• a head replacement unit that replaces the nozzle head unit mounted on the chuck with the at least one second nozzle head unit held by the standby holding unit,
• wherein the paint storage unit that stores the paint sprayed from the nozzle is provided at the robot arm,
• wherein an arm-side circulation path enabling flow of the paint is provided at the robot arm, and
• wherein the arm-side circulation path is provided with:
• an arm-side supply path that feeds the paint supplied from the paint storage unit towards the head-side circulation path;
• and an arm-side return path that causes the paint not sprayed from the nozzle to return from the head-side circulation path and supplies the paint to the arm-side supply path again.