Planning a path around complex surfaces

Continuous3D is able to plan toolpaths to coat 3d objects. A practical application is putting a hard coating onto teeth used in earth-moving equipment such as excavators or diggers. Teeth, otherwise known as ground engagement tools (GETs) can wear down rapidly – the harder the material they are up against, the more aggressive the wear. Teeth used on large diggers operating 24/7 in mines sometimes need daily replacement. To combat this wear process, an overlay coating or hard facing may be applied. In practice, this is often done manually, by welding. Continuous3D is able to produce different robot programs to automatically coat different teeth shapes without the user having to write any code. The software can also handle multiple mechanisms working together, such as the 6-axis robot and 2-axis rotary positioner shown in the image.