18,000th Durr robot to paint Audi Q6 e-tron in Ingolstadt

Durr, a leading mechanical and plant engineering company, has produced its 18,000th painting robot, which will be used by Audi in Ingolstadt. This milestone robot, an EcoRP L033i, is equipped with Durr’s latest EcoBell4 atomizer featuring 4-main needle technology, allowing for rapid color changes with minimal paint and rinsing agent losses.

Durr is outfitting a new top coat line for Audi in Ingolstadt to paint the interior and exterior of the new Audi Q6 e-tron series. The milestone robot will be installed in May in the interior paint booth. The six-axis painting robot, equipped with Durr’s latest EcoBell4 atomizer, can complete color changes in just four seconds due to its patented 4-main-needle technology. “This application technology enables us to connect our three most frequently used colors directly to the atomizer, significantly reducing paint and rinsing agent consumption,” explained Sven Veit, Director Manufacturing Engineering Paint Shop at AUDI AG. The EcoBell4 atomizer technology helps Audi save operating costs and protect the environment by reducing VOC emissions.

Top coat is applied to the exterior of the Audi Q6 e-tron.

The new top coat line will include a total of 28 robots and corresponding application technology. Durr is also providing a quality measurement cell to measure paint layer thickness, structure, and shade, and a cleaning station where two EcoRS Clean F robots will use feather rollers to clean the car bodies. For this project, Audi will also use Durr's EcoSupply P special color supply system with pigging technology, which allows for flexible and unlimited consecutive color applications.

Durr's journey with painting robots began in 1998 when it supplied its first RP7 robot to Nissan in Spain. The company is now on its third robot generation, introduced in 2016, which benefits from a modular structure that places the color changer and metering pump on the robot’s front arm, ensuring fast color changes with minimal paint loss and rinsing agent consumption.

At the end of April, Durr delivered the milestone robot to Audi at its Bietigheim-Bissingen headquarters. “We are always prepared to take on a challenging project. After all, painting a large volume of cars to a high-quality standard is what we do every day. New at Audi are the numerous innovations we are implementing for the first time: the EcoBell4 with 4-main needle technology and high transfer efficiency painting technology. This is what makes the project so special,” said Dr. Lars Friedrich, Head of Division Application Technology at Durr.