CPC B05B 12/04 (2013.01) [B05B 1/16 (2013.01); B05B 1/169 (2013.01); B05B 12/122 (2013.01); B05B 12/126 (2013.01); B05B 12/1409 (2013.01); B05B 13/04 (2013.01); B05C 5/02 (2013.01); B05D 1/02 (2013.01); B41J 2/01 (2013.01); B05B 13/005 (2013.01)] | 7 Claims |
1. A method for coating at least an area of a surface by a Drop-on-Demand (DOD) method with a liquid coating material, comprising the steps of:
providing a DOD dispensing head with a plurality of nozzles arranged in a line forming a row of nozzles, each of the nozzles being individually controllable to dispense the liquid coating material;
moving the DOD dispensing head along a path over the surface, the path maintaining a constant distance between the plurality of nozzles and the surface;
wherein upon moving the DOD dispensing head, the line forming the row of nozzles is maintained oblique to the path;
dispensing discrete amounts of the liquid coating material onto the surface through one or more of the nozzles, wherein the dispensing is triggered non-synchronously by a control unit;
wherein one or more of the plurality of nozzles is actuated at a firing frequency that is independent of the firing frequency of one or more of the other nozzles in the plurality of nozzles; and
wherein the firing frequency of at least one of the plurality of nozzles is based on a speed of the nozzle relative to the surface such that a distance between centers of drops of the liquid coating material successively dispensed by the nozzle is constant.
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