Dürr has delivered its 20,000th painting robot, marking a milestone in the company’s automated vehicle painting business. The robot, from its new EcoRP4 generation, has been installed at Ford’s plant in Valencia, Spain, where it operates in a new primer station on the exterior application line for the Ford Kuga.
Dürr installed the EcoRP4 L033L/R robot in August 2026. It is among the first units of the new generation and works with the company’s EcoBell4 rotary atomizer to apply primer to vehicle bodies. The system is designed to improve application precision while reducing paint consumption and operating costs.
Marcus Treppschuh, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Dürr, said the delivery reflected the company’s experience in automated painting technology. He noted that the milestone had been achieved with one of the first robots from the EcoRP4 generation, combining new developments with established application technology.
The fourth-generation EcoRP4 has been developed to reduce lifecycle costs, simplify maintenance and provide greater flexibility for automotive paint shops. Its platform can be configured for different production layouts, including floor-mounted and tower installations. It can also be used with linear-rail systems such as the EcoRail X2 and EcoRail S2.
Dürr has simplified the robot’s mechanical design and reduced the number of components compared with the previous generation. The changes are intended to make maintenance easier and lower costs over the operating life of the equipment. The robot retains established process technologies to maintain consistent paint application quality.
The primer station at Ford’s Valencia plant also uses other Dürr systems to improve material efficiency. These include the EcoMCC3 A/B colour changer and the EcoBell4 Pro 2x1K atomizer. The equipment is designed to reduce paint and rinsing-agent losses during colour changes and application.
The station also uses Dürr’s high-transfer-efficiency (HTE) process, which increases the amount of coating material deposited on vehicle bodies and reduces overspray. The combination of EcoBell4 technology and the HTE process is expected to help lower material consumption, operating costs and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. The delivery also reflects Dürr’s long-standing presence in Spain’s automotive manufacturing sector. The company supplied its first painting robot to Spain in 1998 and has continued to serve the country’s automotive industry since then.
Dürr is a global engineering company providing technology and systems for automotive manufacturing and other industrial sectors. Its activities include automated painting and application technology, assembly and testing systems, and solutions for industrial production processes.
