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US 9,849,431 B2Granted
System and method for automated production, application and evaluation of coating compositions
AssigneePPG Industries Ohio, Inc.
InventorsMark D. Lewis, Walter J. Robertson, Mary Kimbro, Nathan Goodnow
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for producing, applying and evaluating coating compositions are disclosed. The amounts of components contained in the coating compositions may be monitored, along with processing parameters when the coating compositions are applied to various substrates. In certain embodiments, the characteristics of a produced sample coating are compared with the characteristics of a target or reference coating to determine if they are sufficiently matched.
Claims12
A color matching method for coatings comprising:
- providing a target formulation for a coating composition including types and target amounts of components of the coating composition to be included in the target formulation;
- automatically dispensing the types of the components of the target formulation into a container to provide a sample coating composition and automatically measuring the amount of each of the components of the sample coating composition dispensed into the container;
- comparing the measured amount of each of the components with the target amount of each of the components;
- applying the sample coating composition to a test panel substrate and curing the sample coating composition to form a sample coating;
- comparing characteristics of the sample coating with characteristics of a coating produced from the target formulation to determine whether there is an acceptable match of such characteristics;
- characterizing the sample coating as passing or failing based upon the comparison of the characteristics of the sample coating and the coating produced from the target formulation;
- and
- correlating any differences between the characteristics of the sample coating and the coating produced from the target formulation with the comparison between the measured amount of each of the components and the target amount of each of the components to thereby determine whether, if the sample coating is characterized as failing, changes in the amounts of the components of the sample coating are necessary to match the characteristics of the sample coating to the coating produced from the target formulation;
- monitoring at least one processing parameter when the sample coating composition is applied to the substrate or cured;
- correlating any differences between the characteristics of the sample coating and the coating produced from the target formulation with the at least one monitored processing parameter;
- and
- applying indicia to the sample coating after the sample coating is formed, applying indicia to the sample coating after the at least one processing parameter is monitored, and/or applying indicia to the sample coating after the characteristics of the sample coating are determined, wherein the indicia corresponds to the measured amount of each of the components, the characteristics of the sample coating, the monitored processing parameter, or a combination thereof.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.