About Assars
Since 1985, Assars Industrilackering has been a contract coating specialist focused on high-quality powder coating for both small and large series. Operating from a 6,000 m² production facility in Hillerstorp, Sweden, Assars is known for:
High quality
High flexibility
Environmentally friendly coating processes without harmful solvents
Continuous CO₂ reduction initiatives
In 2018, Assars took a major step in its automation journey by investing in a state-of-the-art automatic powder coating booth with reciprocators from GEMA.
The Challenge: Automation Was Not Enough
Assars already had a great automatic powder coating system. The GEMA booth with reciprocators ensured efficient coating of large surfaces and consistent throughput.
However, even with this advanced setup, manual touch-ups were still required.
These touch-ups typically involved:
Corners
Edges
Complex geometries
Areas shadowed from the reciprocators
As a result, skilled painters were still needed at the booth for manual corrections. This created several challenges:
Repetitive and physically demanding work
Variations in coating thickness, especially on edges and hard-to-reach areas
Higher powder consumption than desired
Difficulty reaching ambitious CO₂ reduction targets
In short:
The automatic booth handled the bulk coating perfectly - but the manual touch-ups limited efficiency, consistency, and sustainability.
The Solution: Mimic & ATEX Approved UR Cobot
Touch-ups are traditionally very difficult to automate. They require flexibility, adaptability, and human-like precision - something conventional robotic programming struggles with.
That is exactly where Mimic by Nordbo Robotics makes the difference.
With Mimic, painters simply demonstrate the touch-up movements, and the robot learns them in less than 30 seconds - without stopping the conveyor.
At Assars, Mimic is combined with an ATEX-approved Universal Robots cobot, making it fully suitable for the powder coating environment.
Assars also invested in the high-accuracy tracker option, ensuring:
Extremely precise repetition of the painter’s movements
Accurate transfer of even highly complex motion patterns
Stable and reliable operation in daily production
ATEX approved Mimic setup as the markers integrated with the manual spray gun for programming are non-electrical
Instead of replacing the automatic GEMA booth, Mimic complements it - by automating the manual touch-ups that previously required skilled labor.
The Results
Within just three weeks after installation, robot utilization reached 90%. Today, it runs at 100%.
The impact:
✅ 25% reduction in powder consumption — significantly improving the carbon footprint
✅ Improved working environment for painters
✅ More consistent and smoother surface finish
✅ Higher productivity
✅ A future-proof powder coating setup
Conclusion
Assars already had excellent automation in place. But by automating the manual touch-ups with Mimic and an ATEX-approved UR cobot, they unlocked the full potential of their powder coating line.
The result is a powerful combination of:
Automated bulk coating (GEMA reciprocators)
Robotic precision for touch-ups (Mimic)
Human expertise transferred directly to the robot
With Mimic, Assars has positioned itself at the forefront of robotic powder coating — achieving superior surface quality, lower powder consumption, improved sustainability, and a smarter use of skilled labor.