In order for a Spray Painting Booth to function properly, there are three basic things that must be well maintained. These things are air, filters and exhaust systems. These three things make for a much more effective, safe and environmentally correct painting service. Unfortunately these things are something that most painting services never think about and can lead to some serious problems in both long and short term operations.
A Spray Painting Booth requires excellent air flow through the booth to operate properly. OSHA requirements state that there must be a minimal flow of 100 feet per minute past the booth’s operator. On average, this means that most booths need a volume source of air at about 10,000 cubic feet per minute. That is a large volume of air and is generally more that most buildings can provide. This is why may spray paint booth owners have an air replacement system in use. With proper air flow there is minimal paint to cloud up and settle on the floor of the booth.
It is also critical for a Spray Painting Booth to have proper filtration in place. Filters are the most important part of the paint booth system. The average paint booth owner knows what the proper level of filtration is. Filters have to perform two functions- capture and hold the paint spray. If the filtration system of the paint booth does not do these two things, then paint escapes into the exhaust chamber and into the environment. Improper filtration is the leading cause of this type of failure.
OSHA and the EPA require that a Spray Painting Booth has a good steel exhaust chamber with a steel filter holding frame and properly designed outlet for the exhaust stack. The exhaust fan must be sized to meet the minimum of 100 feet per minute air flow as well as the cubic feet per minute flow. These two factors determine the size of the fan and the amount of air that is needed for a balanced operation. This also helps keep the fan from drawing in the air located inside the building and makes for a quieter booth operation. If the exhaust fan is mounted high up in the exhaust stack it will make for much quieter operation and an axial fan will be much more efficient because of more space on each end of the exhaust stack. Also a dampered stackhead will keep help keep the booth more climate controlled as well as not let in any small animals.
By keeping these three most important Spray Painting Booth factors in mind and having they designed and installed properly, your painting operation is much more efficiently operated and cost effective. This not only saves money on the operation of your painting services but protects the internal environment of your facility as well as the surrounding environment. These three things can help keep your operation less expensive and less likely to have problems now and in the future with safety and environmental regulations.
You can learn more from Dynavac about how to design and properly maintain your spray painting booth with proper air flow, filtration and exhaust systems.
