In the spring of 2024,

an intelligent spraying robot with built-in 'electronic eyes',

along with its partners such as spray guns and blow dryers,

integrated a sheet metal spraying workstation,

and completed assembly and debugging in a brand-new factory building in Zeguo Town.

This is not just a simple rollout of smart devices, but a key step for a technology company relocating from within Beijing's Fifth Ring Road to complete the full-chain layout of 'software and hardware' in Wenling.

Today, the company's integrated sheet metal and paint workstation has not only become a helpful assistant for domestic 4S shops and repair factories during painting, but has also opened the door to European and American markets, accelerating its progress in the automotive aftermarket sheet metal and paint sector.

Rewinding time to the first half of 2023, at that time Cloud Curve (Taizhou) Robotics Co., Ltd., rooted in Beijing, also carried a distinct 'software gene'—focusing on software system development and accumulating considerable technical reserves in the field of intelligent spraying.

'If we want to further expand our development space, we cannot be limited to software development; we also need hardware as a carrier for implementation,' said Dong Tianzhi, the company's CTO. In Beijing, where every inch of land is precious, working on robots, gantries, and other hardware means either going to Hebei to find a partner manufacturer or squeezing into spaces outside the Fifth Ring Road, inevitably affecting the rhythm of product development and implementation.

"On one hand, our spraying robots mainly target the automotive aftermarket and are themselves part of the automotive industry chain. During our inspection, we found that Taizhou's automotive industry chain is very complete; on the other hand, our previous clients were mostly distributed in South China and East China. Developing here would bring us closer to our clients." What pleasantly surprised them even more was that in recent years, Zeguo Town has been planning its robot industry chain, and the direction of industrial structure adjustment aligns perfectly with the company's development direction. "Moreover, Zeguo Town is very sincere and has provided great support in terms of land, factories, and other supporting policies."

In Dong Tianzhi's view, this is a mutually committed cooperation. From finalizing the partnership to moving into the new factory, it took only two months. "The government provided multiple ready-made factory options, allowing us to basically achieve a 'move-in with bags packed' situation."

Nowadays, over 50% of the parts in the company's production chain come from around Zeguo. Parts that previously required coordination across cities can now be quickly fulfilled by surrounding supporting enterprises with just one order, greatly shortening the production cycle. While retaining the software R&D center in Beijing, the Zeguo base has become a comprehensive hub integrating research and development, production, and manufacturing.

After the vehicle enters, one-button start allows the entire process from painting to flash drying to be completed in 40 minutes. This is the integrated body and paint workstation developed by Yunquxian, which significantly improves efficiency compared to earlier products, reducing the original 1.5 to 2 hours of time to one-third.

In 2021, the first sheet metal spraying robot was deployed at a 4S dealership in Foshan, Guangdong. At that time, the equipment only consisted of basic components such as the gantry, robot, and spray gun. The AI vision system was not mature, and processes like paint addition and inspection still required human intervention.

“Customers bought the equipment, but still couldn't do without people. This is not the result we wanted.” With this in mind, the company began a technological breakthrough aimed at 'freeing human labor.'

The Zeguo base provided a testing ground for iterations. In 2024, an automatic paint-changing device was implemented, solving the previous pain points of small spray gun pots that required frequent manual paint changes. Now, employees only need to prepare the paint pots in advance, and the robot can automatically complete the entire paint changing and spraying process.

This is just the first step. In the process of working with clients, companies capture more 'non-standard demands.' 'Some repair shops, in order to save time and costs, requested us to paint without removing the mirrors, which is a completely new challenge for us,' said Dong Tianzhi.

In response, the team deeply integrated technologies such as 3D vision and AI, enabling robots not only to learn 'automatic avoidance,' but also to achieve intelligent management of the entire painting process. 'The system backend has recorded massive amounts of vehicle model data. When a vehicle enters, it automatically scans and identifies it, accurately matches the painting requirements, and generates the work trajectory, while simultaneously calculating key data such as paint usage and operation time,' Dong Tianzhi explained. Relying on the digital twin system, operators can intuitively obtain paint-matching plans, view painting results and robot movements in real time, achieving full-process visual management.

The iterative upgrades in the drying process have pushed efficiency to new heights. "Painting is the core process, but flash drying takes four times as long as painting." To address this pain point, we first integrated hair dryers into the body and paint workstations, and after settling in Wenling, continued to optimize them, innovatively adopting a three-dryer configuration, reducing flash drying time to 8–9 minutes, which is more than a 50% reduction compared to before.

"What we are doing is teaching the robot the experience of the painters through repeated iterative upgrades and scenario refinements," Dong Tianzhi told. Nowadays, the human-machine collaboration in the painting process is smoother than ever, with a single operator able to manage at least three devices, which is the core value of technological upgrading.

The intelligent spraying technology of CurveRobot is continuously being converted into market orders. In 2024, the company is focusing on the domestic market, following a breakthrough last year with a year-on-year growth of over 40%.

The diversified domestic market scenarios have become a 'training ground' for honing the technology. 'The current situation of many domestic scenarios and varied demands forces us to solidify our technology, and at the same time gives us greater room for development,' said Dong Tianzhi. 'For example, today, the market for new energy vehicles offers a wide variety of colors, making color difference control difficult. Manual spraying cannot ensure consistency, whereas robotic spraying can solve this problem through precise trajectory planning and paint-matching solutions.'

The recognition from domestic clients has given the company full confidence. 'Previously, a 4S dealership in Xingtai, Hebei, purchased five pieces of equipment in one go to try spraying car wraps. At that time, they even invited the car wrap paint manufacturer for testing. One manufacturer, after observing the equipment in operation on-site, immediately asked the 4S dealership for our contact information and expressed their intention to purchase,' said Dong Tianzhi. Their equipment has even entered multiple domestic new energy vehicle OEMs.

Once the technology has been polished and matured in the domestic market, going overseas naturally becomes the next step.

In the first half of last year, enterprises made breakthroughs in markets such as South Korea, Italy, and France, and even achieved a leap from "0" to "1" in the U.S. market—a sheet metal spray workstation successfully entered a U.S. 4S store, marking the first step in entering the American market.

According to Dong Tianzhi, the confidence to open the doors to the European and American markets comes from technical strength, while compliance certification serves as the "stepping stone." Previously, the enterprise focused all its efforts on ATEX explosion-proof certification, undergoing rigorous testing, and successfully obtaining the certificate last year, clearing obstacles for their products to go overseas.

At present, the company holds 48 patents, ranging from software algorithms to hardware integration, building a complete technological barrier. "Next, we plan to integrate the paint baking room into the workstation to further enhance the intelligence level of sheet metal spraying operations," said Dong Tianzhi.

From Beijing to Wenling

A cross-thousand-mile 'mutual endeavor'

Has not only given the painting robot 'eyes'

But also taught it to 'think'

Now, it is carrying the breeze of Wenling's intelligent manufacturing

To workshops around the world ~

Looking forward to this 'spark of wisdom' in the future

Lighting up more scenarios