Sealing, gluing and other contour deposition

Contour deposition technologies

Programming a toolpath for sealing basically generates a cycle that consists of three sections:

approach (off-process)

sealing process (in-process)

retraction (off-process)

The cycle is calculated and controlled by the programming attributes and events.

Programming attributes

The display of the programming attributes in the Programming defaults and Active program dashboards is defined in a Settings.xml file. With a standard installation, a default file is located at the path <install>\E2Plugin\Technologies\SealingTechnology\Standard\ControllerSettings.

For the standard controller the following attributes have been defined.

Tech tab	Container	Attribute	Description
Program base
Tool data

Manufacturing geometry

Toolpath calculation

Technology base

Contour




Toolpath quality


	The program reference information.
Base frame	The reference frame of the program.


	Tool information.
Tool resource	The name of the tool.
Technology	The applied technology.
Automatic tool change
Tool frame	The tool frame that runs the toolpath.


	The mapping of the tool frame axes with the corresponding vectors on the process geometry.
Normal direction	The alignment of the tool frame Z axis with the normal direction of the process geometry.
Tangent direction	The alignment of the tool frame X axis with the tangent direction of the process geometry.


	The global transformation of the manufacturing geometry.
Translation in X,Y,Z	The global translation in X,Y or Z direction.


Rotation around X,Y,Z	The global rotation around the X,Y or Z axis.


	The boundary conditions on the manufacturing geometry to calculate the toolpath.
Distance start point	The distance of the first in-process point from the process geometry start position.
Distance end point	The distance of the last in-process point to the process geometry end position.
Opposite approach side	To reverse the approach side at the manufacturing start position.
Reverse process direction	To reverse the manufacturing process direction, i.e. changes start to end position and vice verse.


	The approximation of the manufacturing contour to calculate the toolpath.
Mode	The mode to approximate the contour.
Max. sag	The maximum allowed deviation between the geometry and calculated toolpath.
Max. distance	The maximum distance between two in-process toolpath elements along the contour.

Event relink tolerance	The tolerance to find the nearest TPE after a toolpath re-computation, to assign the existing event to. This attribute is hidden by default.


	The offset of the toolpath element from its original location on the manufacturing geometry.
Contour offset	The offset in bi-tangent direction.
Sheet offset	The offset in (surface) normal direction.


	The operational orientation of the tool resource.
Work (tangent rotation)	The work angle, i.e. tangent rotation.
Travel (bitangent rotation)	The travel angle, i.e. bitangent rotation.
Tool (normal rotation)	The tool angle, i.e. normal rotation.


	Additional (optimization) conditions to calculate the toolpath.
Tangent absolute	A switch to automatically apply a tangent absolute direction on the in-process path of the operation. The tangent direction of the first in-process point will be used as reference.


Ext. axis backprog.	The axis values of an external resource, like a positioner, as been set at the first position of the in-process path, will be propagated backwards up to the approach of that in-process path.


	The extension at the track ends when programming an operation.
Track extension start	The value of the extension length. A negative value is possible.
Track extension end	The value of the extension length. A negative value is possible.
Keep original point	Switch to define if the original path element (position) is being moved to the overrun position or remains at its original position. In the last case a new path element is created at the overrun position.


	To define an approach motion towards the in-process toolpath.
Approach	The number of approach steps.

Motion	The motion type for the approach.
Offset reference	The reference to determine the offset directions.

Offset tangential / bitangential / normal	The local offset of the approach step from the in-process toolpath start element.


	To define a retraction motion away from the in-process toolpath.
Retract	The number of retraction steps.

Motion	The motion type for the retract.
Offset reference	The reference to determine the offset directions.

Offset tangential / bitangential / normal	To local offset of the retract step from the in-process toolpath end element.


	The actions when starting the dispersion of the sealant.
Gun on	Sets the event to turn on the sealing gun.


	The actions when stopping the dispersion of the sealant.
Gun off	Sets the event to turn off the sealing gun.


	The toolpath quality evaluation criteria. The exact content may vary per technology.
Unreachability	Evaluates unreachable situations of the robot or machine.
Collision	Evaluates collision situations.
Singularity	Evaluates singularity situations of the robot or machine.

Process angle deviation	Evaluates the process angle deviation from its reference value.

Axis limit proximity	Evaluates the proximity to the limits of the driven axis. Separated evaluation value range for linear and circular joint axis.
Axis speed	Evaluates the axis speed of all driven axis as a (absolute) difference between the start and the end motion between positions.

Program events

The standard sealing technology has the following programming events:

Motion events
Speed	Sets the velocity for the subsequent motions.
Accuracy	Sets the accuracy for the subsequent motions.
Dwell	Sets a waiting time at the path element for the tool to remain position until moving further.
Acceleration	Sets the acceleration for the subsequent motions.

IO signal events
Wait for signal	Adds a wait for an input signal event of the active controller.
Set signal	Adds a set output signal event of the active controller.
Synchronize robots	Sets an event to synchronize cooperating robots.
Set resource port	Sets a port of a resource.
Wait for resource port	Waits for a port of a resource.
Adapter actor	Sets a signal of a mechanical parent adapter to create or delete a mechanical connection during simulation.