Programming method for a coating installation, and corresponding coating installation

A Method for programming a program-controlled coating installation with a coating robot and an application device for coating components, comprising:

• a) Specifying geometry data, the geometry data representing the geometry of the component to be coated,
• b) specifying robot path data,
• b1) the robot path data defining a robot path which is to be traversed by a paint impact point of the application device guided by the coating robot in coating operation, and
• b2) the robot path being defined on the basis of the predetermined geometry data of the component to be coated,
• c) determination of suitable spray pattern data,
• c1) the spray pattern data representing a layer thickness profile, which is generated by the application device on the surface of the component around the paint impact point in real coating operation, and
• c2) wherein the determined spray pattern data are intended to achieve an acceptable coating result in real coating operation when coating the component along the robot path,
• c3) said suitable spray pattern data being determined by a simulation which takes into account the robot path data and the geometry data of the component to be coated, and
• c4) wherein the suitable spray pattern data are stored in a first data set.