Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toshinao Suzuki

Noritaka Miyamoto

Kouta Kodama

Nobuhide Kondo

Ikuo Chidai

Hajime Kubota

A coating method for forming a coating film by discharging a coating solution from a coating die onto a surface of a substrate that is being conveyed includes detecting the pressure and flow rate of the coating solution in a circulation circuit through which the coating solution is circulated between the coating die and a supply tank for the coating solution, estimating the viscosity of the coating solution based on the pressure and flow rate detected, determining an initial value of a coating gap between the discharge port of the coating die and the substrate which is necessary to adjust the coating width of the coating die to a target value based on the correlation between the viscosity estimated and the coating width, and adjusting the coating gap to the initial value and starting the supply of the coating solution to the coating die.

Coating method

A thermal spraying device with a first blowing mechanism for lengthening a droplet formed near the tips of thermal spraying materials by arc, and a second blowing mechanism for a blowing a tip portion of the lengthened droplet to atomize it into droplets and to scatter atomized droplets towards a face to be thermally sprayed. The first blowing mechanism lengthens the droplet so that the second blowing mechanism propels air to the tip portion of the lengthened droplet that is separated from a location where the tips of thermal spraying materials are adjacent and the arc is generated. Arcing between the tips of the thermal spraying materials continues stably, and satisfactory thermal spraying is possible.

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Toyota, Japan

Toshinao Suzuki