Painting Robots add fresh coat to Red River's capabilities

By Adrienne BrownOctober 9, 2019

Robotic Paint Booth at Red River Army Depot
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Robotic Paint Booth at Red River Army Depot
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Robotic Paint Booth at Red River Army Depot
3 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Red River team member Clint Baird paints the inside of the door of a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. The Fabrication and Surface Support team takes extra steps to ensure the vehicles are top quality after going through the depot's newest ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Robotic Paint Booth at Red River Army Depot
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Robotic Paint Booth at Red River Army Depot
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RED RIVER ARMY DEPOT, Texas -- Team Red River has recently added another skill to their long list of capabilities: a robotic painting system.

In approximately one hour, Red River's robotic paint booth is able to prime, dry and paint two M115A1 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. Since July, the team in the Fabrication and Surface Support Division have completed over 100 HMMWVs in the robotic paint booth.

"This process is truly changing the way we do paint business at Red River," said Adrian Kirby, supervisor for the robotic painting system. "The booth provides a more consistent paint coat and produces an overall quality paint job for each vehicle."

Currently, the process consists of 16 minutes of prep and prime followed by 30 minutes of drying. Several steps are completed by Red River painters Clint Baird and Jeff Brown during the drying process including painting bumpers, inside doors and under wheel wells to ensure each vehicle is top quality. The robots follow the drying time with 17 minutes of regular painting.

The vehicles are then pulled by a conveyor belt into the final drying oven. The team is able to then place the next two vehicles on the conveyor belt to begin the full painting process.

"We've done a lot to ensure the robots are working properly," said Baird. "It's definitely not a process where we are able to just push a button and watch the robots do all the work."

To date, the robotic paint booth has produced no rejects.

"We are looking forward to seeing what other vehicles we will be able to add to the booths," Baird and Brown said.

The booth is currently configured to paint three types of HMMWVs and the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle.

Robotic Painting at RRAD