Florida company employs robots to automate prep and painting

摘要

Steve Morton and his Florida-based company, Visions East, may be well on the way to revolutionizing the way vessel surfaces are prepped and painted. An experienced yacht painter, Morton has spent the last 17 years developing an automated marine coating system that promises to reduce costs and improve the fairing and application process through robotics. Morton began painting yachts at Cable Marine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 1977 before starting his own yacht-painting company in 1984. The technplogy-sawy painter and businessman was looking for an economical alternative to traditional painting methods, where overall costs are high and the quality of coating applications inconsistent. Morton felt that automating the process would remove the human-error factor in painting and result in more consistent applications.