3M's Robotic Paint Repair System Finesses Prestigious Award

3M has been selected as the winner of the Award for Technique after giving a presentation at 2021 SURCAR Detroit Conference. The presentation – made jointly by 3M and Ford Motor Co. – featured 3M’s Finesse-it Robotic Paint Repair System. Accepting the award was the two-person team that made the presentation: Scott Barnett, 3M’s director of application engineering, robotics and automation, and Marc Tornero, Ford’s AI vision and robotics lead engineer, global paint.

The winning presentation detailed the development of the 3M Finesse-it Robotic Paint Repair System, a project aimed at achieving a better method for perfecting car finishes. After years of research and testing, and drawing on 3M's robotics expertise, the system was commercialized earlier in 2021. According to 3M, the system is centered on proprietary software that fixes defects by providing robots the right repair process to enable them to sand and polish the vehicles using 3M abrasive products.

“For decades, paint imperfections on vehicles coming off the assembly line have been detected and repaired manually, a labor-intensive process that produces inconsistent results,” says Carl Doeksen, director of robotics and automation at 3M. “Our new 3M Finesse-it Robotic Paint Repair System, developed in collaboration with our integrator partners, automates the process, delivering repairs consistently, efficiently and of the highest quality.”

The system is said to be the latest innovation from the 3M Abrasives System Division, which develops robotic abrasive processes that use automation to increase productivity, consistency and cost savings.