Construction is one of the oldest industries in the world. Throughout history, new construction technologies have enabled us to build in new ways, building unique structures. We are now at the start of a new era where robotics is entering the construction site. This will help with today’s challenges, but also enable new, unseen opportunities for the future. In this blogpost, we want to focus particularly on the benefits of painting robots in construction. What can a painting robot on the construction site mean for you?
Looming deadlines and time pressure are experienced by every single painting company. Whether it is tasks by others that have not been finished, an unprepared site, or a lack of workforce. These are only a few examples of what can cause these delays.
The helping hand of a painting robot will support the process by painting walls and ceilings with ease without needing any scaffolding, ladders, or extensions to reach hard to paint areas. The robot will be able to take some of the bulk work, while the painting professionals can focus on the areas where their expertise is needed the most.
It certainly happened that after a quality inspection you heard that lots of surfaces needed to be repainted. Rework is time-consuming, frustrating, demotivating, and costly. Let alone how it can affect your plans to work on other projects.
Painting robots are great at ensuring a consistent quality finish, as the painting robot does not get tired and always applies the paint in the same way. Meanwhile, the painters with their skills and expertise can now do a quality control of the painted surfaces, making any corrections where needed. This is a great way to reduce rework and ensure a consistent painting quality.
Time equals money. That is the simple truth in any construction or renovation project where profit margins are often thin. And in a competitive environment every detail counts. Meeting quality standards on schedule is the ideal, but delays, wasted materials, rework, and coordination issues can quickly drive up costs.
Productivity significantly affects the overall costs of a project. With a painting robot as an additional tool, a higher amount of surfaces can be finished in a shorter amount of time with your existing team. And as a painting robot, always applies a consistent amount of paint at the right speed and with a consistent technique, it can save the amount of paint needed to get that high-quality finish. This not only saves costs, but is more sustainable at the same time.
The larger the project, the larger the potential of using painting robots. Multiple robots work at the same time, with one team member managing the process and coordinating with the rest of the team.
It is becoming increasingly harder to find new painters. The Painter Insight Monitor found that 75% of all European painting companies already experience a shortage. With only 7% of all painters being younger than 35 and 25% being 58+, it will only get more difficult to find enough new painters. While we certainly should attract more people into the trade, we should acknowledge that new generations want to work differently with a different work-life balance.
A painting robot is essentially a new team member. It will be a new addition helping the professionals out with some of the more challenging tasks. Particularly for younger generations that grew up with new technologies, it will be more exciting and interesting to work with these new technologies. Having a painting robot as part of your team could actually encourage younger workers to join your company. After all, good tools attract good people.
Being a painter is hard. Painting, plastering, sanding, carrying materials, kneeling, working at heights, treating ceiling, working in awkward positions, and more. It is not easy on the body. In 2021, the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment concluded that painters working in construction and innovation have the ergonomically most demanding job. This directly leads to long-term health problems, sickness, absence, and forced early retirements.
Painting robots can help with this by taking by taking a portion of the repetitive and physically demanding work. This is better for the painters’ health and the improved working conditions make the job itself more attractive. Rather have a robot take care of that 3.5 meter (11.5 feet) ceiling.
Imagine a larger commercial project. Let’s say 3000 square meters (32,300 square feet) at 3.2 meters high (10.5 feet). There have already been delays earlier in the project, but you are still expected to meet the deadline. Meanwhile, two people in your team are absent due to health problems and the open positions in your team still have not been filled. Not the ideal starting point.
You assess the project and conclude that 70% of the surfaces can be painted using the robot. The other 30% will require the eye and skills of your painters. While the painters focus on these surfaces, the robot is steadily taking care of the walls and ceilings. One of the more experienced team members checks in now and then on the robot’s progress and quality. Within a week the project is finished, giving you the time for a final inspection of all the work before handing it over to your client. Since your team was able to get the job done without feeling too much time pressure, there were fewer mistakes during the process. Your client is happy with the end results, while your team and the robot are already taking care of the next project.
We are focused on creating collaborative solutions - these are solutions that can work together with people on-site making their lives easier.
We have a robotic solution that supports painting in construction, boosting productivity, reducing costs, and improving sustainability. Operating within the existing workflow it is another tool for getting the job done.
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