Robotic dispensing: a buyer's guide
Valve selection, fluid behaviour, height sensing and shot repeatability — how to specify a dispensing system around your material.
Specifying a dispensing system means specifying the valve. Viscosity, filler content, pot life and the shape required — dot, bead, fill or spray — determine the valve, and the valve determines most of the quote. The motion platform is the easy part.
Characterise the fluid first
Viscosity and whether it is shear-thinning. A thixotropic material behaves differently under pressure than at rest, and valve choice must account for it.
Filler content and abrasiveness, which drive wear and therefore maintenance interval.
Pot life and cure mechanism, which decide whether meter-mix is required.
Then the geometry
A dot, a continuous bead, a filled cavity and a sprayed coating are four different processes. Some valves do several well; none do all four.
Standoff consistency matters more than most buyers expect — height sensing or vision keeps it constant across warped or variable-height assemblies.
Then repeatability
Shot-to-shot volume variation is the number to ask about, not maximum speed.
Temperature stability of both fluid and environment affects it more than the robot's positional accuracy does.
Commonly asked
Can you test our fluid before we buy?
Yes, and you should insist on it with any supplier. Send the fluid and the part; we dispense it and show you the result.
What maintenance does a dispensing valve need?
It depends on the material more than the valve. Abrasive filled compounds wear wetted parts faster; clean low-viscosity fluids can run a long time between service. We will tell you the realistic interval for your material.
Get the answer for your actual part
A guide can only take you so far. Send us the board, the fluid or the fastener and we will run it, film it, and come back with cycle times and a quote.
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