Can a Cobot Spray Glaze in a Tile Plant Booth Safely?

Can a cobot take the glaze spray pass without anyone in the booth?

In a tile plant, a cobot arm can hold the spray gun and run the glaze pass while no one stands inside the booth. That removes the person from the mist during the spraying itself, which is the part of the job most likely to expose a sprayer. We found no published case of a cobot spraying glaze inside a booth, so this is something to prove on your floor, not something to assume.

Two problems sit under the coughing, and a robot addresses only one of them. Mist irritation is an exposure and ventilation problem, and it should be measured before any equipment is chosen. A robot takes the operator out of the spray zone, but it does not clean the air, and it does not remove the need for people to enter the booth for cleaning, nozzle clearing and changeover.

This page covers the rules we could confirm, the injury and adoption figures we found, the gaps in the research, and the safety review you will need before asking for a quote. Where the research came up empty, we say so.

Why are glaze sprayers coughing, and what is known about the exposure?

Throat and lung irritation in spray areas can come from mist, from the glaze material, from ventilation that does not pull air away from the operator, or from a mix of these. We could not find a study measuring glaze mist exposure among tile sprayers, so the cause cannot be named from published data alone. Air sampling by a qualified industrial hygienist is the step that answers it.

According to the Federal Register notice of April 18, 2024, OSHA's respirable crystalline silica standard sets a permissible exposure limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air as an 8-hour time-weighted average, with an action level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter. For general industry, the limit was lowered from 100 micrograms per cubic meter. Silica exposure is noted in ceramic manufacturing among other industries, though we found no source that applies the limit to glaze spraying specifically.

The standard asks employers to use controls such as water or ventilation first, and to provide respirators when those controls fall short. Whatever changes on the floor should be judged by sampling results against these levels, not by how the new setup looks on paper.

What do OSHA rules require for a spray booth in a tile plant?

For spray areas, OSHA's fire and explosion rules at 29 CFR 1910.107 require mechanical ventilation to run while spraying. Makeup air has to replace what the booth exhausts, or the booth pulls air from wherever it can, often past the operator. According to the NIOSH spray finishing checklist, makeup air must be heated when outdoor temperatures fall below 55°F, which matters for plants that run two shifts through cold months. That checklist is an older document, and its date was not confirmed in our search.

Exhaust terminals must sit at least six feet from combustible walls or roofs, under 1910.107(d)(8) and (d)(9). OSHA treats health hazards from spray finishing mainly under 1910.94, and fire and explosion hazards under 1910.107. That split matters, because a robot changes neither the exhaust fan nor the makeup air, so a booth that fails either rule fails with a robot too.

Before any robot goes inside or beside a booth, have the ventilation, makeup air and exhaust terminals checked against these rules by someone qualified to sign off. The minimum face velocity figure was not shown in the excerpt we could review, so take it from the standard text as published, not from this page.

• Mechanical ventilation running during every spray pass (29 CFR 1910.107)
• Makeup air replacing booth exhaust, heated when outdoor temperatures fall below 55°F (NIOSH checklist)
• Exhaust terminals at least six feet from combustible walls or roofs (1910.107)
• Health hazards reviewed under 1910.94 and fire hazards under 1910.107

Is a cobot safe to work beside a spray booth?

Cobots are built to share space with people. The safety standard for collaborative operation, ISO/TS 15066:2016, supplements ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2 and describes four collaborative methods: safety-rated monitored stop, hand guiding, speed and separation monitoring, and power and force limiting. Power and force limiting keeps contact below biomechanical limits, according to the standard listing.

That standard addresses contact with people. It does not address airborne glaze mist, the electrical classification of the booth, or explosion risk in the spray area. We found no source on explosion-protected robot requirements or on NFPA 33 requirements for robotic spraying, so those are open questions for the site review.

A spray cell with a cobot would most likely be assessed as one machine under ISO 10218-2, covering the atomizer, paint supply and operator access points. That is our inference rather than a sourced statement, and it should be confirmed in writing during the site assessment.

How big is the tile industry, and how often are workers hurt?

Tile manufacturing falls under NAICS 327122, ceramic wall and floor tile manufacturing. The most recent establishment count we located came from 2002 Economic Census data, which is too old to size the industry now, and we found no tile-only count from 2022 or later. This page therefore gives no national number of tile plants or spray booths.

Injury data is broader. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2024 total recordable case rate of 3.3 per 100 full-time workers for NAICS 327, Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing. Cases involving days away from work, job restriction or transfer ran at 2.0, and cases involving days away from work alone ran at 1.1. BLS notes a series break starting with 2023 data because of the NAICS 2022 revision, so compare years with care.

The Texas Department of Insurance lists a state-level rate of 1.7 for this subsector in its 2024 table. The figure is not comparable with the national rate, and we did not confirm why. Staffing counts for tile plants and turnover for spray painters were not found, so the most useful comparison is your own injury and illness log set against these national rates.

How would the spray pass change with a cobot in place?

Today a sprayer walks the booth, holds the gun along the glaze line, checks coverage by eye and steps out to clear nozzles or change lines. With a cobot, the arm holds the gun and runs the pass on a set path, while staff load parts, watch the run and record results from outside the booth. The person still checks quality and clears faults, so the shape of the crew changes more than the headcount.

Path accuracy is the main engineering question. Glaze coverage depends on distance, speed and overlap, and a fixed path has to match the part geometry on your line. Parts that vary in shape or size may need reteaching, which lengthens setup and should be counted in any hours comparison.

Two shifts raise the value of the change only if the cell runs without repeated manual intervention. A cell that stops every few parts trades one exposure for another, through more entries to clear faults. Measure how often the cell needs a person in the booth, not just how often the arm sprays.

Are cobots common enough to trust in a plant like this?

Cobots are no longer niche. According to the International Federation of Robotics, cobot installations reached 66,000 units in 2025, about 11% of all industrial robot installations. Total 2025 installations were a record 603,000 units, up 11%.

Cobot growth was 7% in 2025, below overall market growth, according to the same report. Cobots held 10.5% of installations in 2023, so their share has moved slowly. These figures cover all industries, not spray finishing, and none of them shows how many cobots run glaze booths.

Trust should come from a site test. A pilot with one booth, sprayer air measured before and after, and a written fault log will tell your team more than any industry share.

What should a plant check before leasing a cobot for the booth?

Start with air. Ask for sampling of sprayer breathing-zone air, compared against the silica action level and any limits for glaze components that your safety team can source. Sampling tells you whether a robot solves the exposure problem or only moves the operator.

Then review the booth against OSHA's ventilation and exhaust rules, and get written confirmation from the authority having jurisdiction on where a robot may sit in the booth. Ask your insurer the same question before any spray cell goes live.

We are an OEM-neutral integrator. We pick the robot for the site from across manufacturers, then lease it through financing, deploy and integrate it, train the staff and service it nationwide through regional service engineers under our service plan. The lease is quoted after a free site assessment, so the air sampling and booth review can happen before anyone commits.

If the review says a cobot cannot enter the spray zone yet, a useful first step may be a cobot on booth-side tasks such as loading or unloading, which keeps people out of mist without changing the spray process. We have not verified that such a task fits your line, so it belongs in the site assessment.

• Breathing-zone air sampling for sprayers, measured against OSHA levels
• Booth ventilation, makeup air and exhaust terminals checked against 29 CFR 1910.107
• Written sign-off on robot placement from the authority having jurisdiction
• Staff plan for cleaning, nozzle clearing and changeover
• Fault response plan so no one enters the booth to clear a stop without a procedure