US 12,221,706 B2
Method to produce an articulated automatic operator device and corresponding articulated automatic operator device
Gabriele Rustici Venturini, Ozzano dell'Emilia (IT)
Assigned to I.M.A. Industria Macchine Automatiche S.P.A., Ozzano dell'Emilia (IT)
Appl. No. 17/426,188
Filed by I.M.A. INDUSTRIA MACCHINE AUTOMATICHE S.P.A., Ozzano dell'Emilia (IT)
PCT Filed Jan. 30, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IT2020/050011
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 28, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/157780, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 6, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 102019000001321 (IT), filed on Jan. 30, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0112590 A1, Apr. 14, 2022
Int. Cl. C23C 4/08 (2016.01); B25J 18/00 (2006.01); C23C 4/129 (2016.01)
CPC C23C 4/08 (2013.01) [B25J 18/00 (2013.01); C23C 4/129 (2016.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method to produce an articulated automatic operator device treated on the surface with a corrosion-resistant material so as to obtain a surface resistant to cleaning or sterilizing treatments, in the field of the production and packaging of pharmaceutical products, the device comprising a plurality of articulated components rotatably connected to one another in correspondence with respective coupling interfaces, said articulated components comprising inside them drive members and/or electric or electronic components and/or pipes for fluids, wherein said method comprises:
providing casings suitable to be assembled together to make the articulated components of the articulated automatic operator device, wherein the casings are made of a first material chosen from a group comprising aluminum, magnesium, titanium, steel, or alloys thereof, composite materials with a polymer matrix, carbon fibers, or combinations thereof, each casing being hollow and provided with a housing compartment suitable to receive said drive members and/or electric or electronic components and/or pipes for fluids, wherein each of said casings is provided with at least one respective coupling edge configured to be coupled with a corresponding coupling edge of another casing, to compose one of said articulated components in a condition of isolation with respect to the outside environment;
subjecting each casing to a thermal spray treatment using solid powders of a second material accelerated in a supersonic gaseous jet, said second material being chosen from a group comprising one or more of either stainless steel, cobalt-chromium metal alloy, nickel alloy, material with a polymer matrix, a metal-ceramic composite material, to deposit a coating of said second material at least on the external surface of each of said casings; and, after the spray treatment, said method provides to:
make said drive members and/or electric or electronic components and/or pipes for fluids to be housed in the respective housing compartments of each of said casings in order to make said articulated components;
assemble said respective articulated components with respect to each other in correspondence with the respective coupling interfaces to make said articulated automatic operator device,
wherein said thermal spray treatment is selected from:
a cold spray treatment in which solid powders of said second material are accelerated in a supersonic gaseous jet;
a high velocity oxygen-fuel coating spray treatment in which at least partly melted particles of said second material are accelerated in a supersonic gaseous jet obtained from the combustion of oxygen and a fuel.