The proper cleaning and maintenance of your powder coating booth are essential when it comes to boosting the productivity and performance of your paint shop. Also, taking proper and regular care of your unit will go a long way in significantly minimizing wastage and facilitate the hassle-free recovery of powder overspray, which can then be reused. The right maintenance process for your paint booth can as well greatly reduce the health and safety risks for your painters that are related to such products. This includes reducing the threat of explosions arising from combustible static electricity infused powder coating deposits. On the other hand, powder coating compounds accumulating in your unit, will, with the passage of time, build up in the spray area itself, the floor, walls, and even railings.
These static electricity charged compounds are known to stick to all these spray booth surfaces and tend to be extremely hard to get rid of. Additionally, spray powder along with ambient dust can, over time, begin to pile up in the furthest reaches of your unit and prove difficult to eliminate. This waste materials buildup is not only an eyesore, but can immensely heighten the risk of cross-contamination and even soil the various different objects you might wish to paint with powder coating. To this end, it is always wise to make it a point to integrate a suitable cleaning and maintenance regimen of your powder coating booth. This will enable you to effectively do away with all the above-mentioned issues in a markedly convenient and stress-free manner. Well then, here are some tips on how you may properly clean and maintain your unit to get the most out of it and even prolong its lifespan. While, at the same time, curtailing waste of your powder coating materials.
Always take all the time you need to minutely examine and when necessary change your powder coating booth’s filters
When the filters of your paint booth get damaged or even clogged, you will certainly notice performance problems. Ideally, all paint booths function in a relatively similar way. This is simply drawing air from the outside which is then made to pass through a series of filters and is ultimately expelled to the environment. When your spray booth filters start to get clogged, they will exert much pressure on its exhaust fan. In the long run, if left unchecked, this will give rise to visibility issues within the unit and might as well adversely affect the overall quality of finishes being applied. When your booth’s filters are damaged, there will be a serious need to clean the exhaust system from one end to the next after every paint job. This can prove to be a time-consuming and ongoing challenge.
As such, it is always prudent to replace your powder coating booth’s filters before they can get clogged. In the first place, there are blanket filters, which usually serve as the 1st line of defense and are generally good for no more than 2 weeks. There are also bag filters that have to be replaced once every 2 to 4 months, all depending on the traffic of your unit. Next, there are HEPA filters which serve as the final filtration step prior to a booth’s exhaust being vented into the environment. When all the other filters are regularly cleaned and changed, HEPA filters tend to last for up to 1,000 hours. These kinds of paint booth filters may also be vacuumed without the risk of damaging them. Alternatively, in units which adhere to the cartridge filtration method, cartridge filters are normally able to last for up to 2,000 hours. These sorts of filters cannot be vacuumed without wrecking havoc on their functionality. Therefore, the only solution is to change them once they get clogged. Lastly, panel filters in a cartridge filtration unit have to be replaced at least once after every 4 months, and shouldn’t be vacuumed or reused.
Make use of pulse control technology
Pulse control happens to be an optional solution that can be added to the powder collection modules. This given technology is simplistic and facilitates consistent airflow and visibility in a spray booth unit. The pulse control effect emanates from a Magnehelic gauge situated at the sides of booths and sets to work by monitoring drops in the unit’s pressure. When this pressure gets to a preset point, the filters will pulse and vibrate for a limited period of time. This, in turn, makes powder detach itself from the filters and fall downwards towards a fluidized bed or even a powder drawer. Pulse control technology is an extremely neat solution for maintaining and cleaning a powder coating booth.
Regulate airflow with manual VFDs
When you heighten airflow in a paint booth, the surrounding environment will definitely be much safer for your painters. However, this also heightens the likelihood of waste as increased airflow will push more powder away from the object being painted. On the other hand, decreasing the airflow will curb wastage, but will create a hazardous environment for your painters too. To address both these issues, you can have recourse to manual VFDs that will let you effectively regulate airflow to suit any particular situation. You may simply turn it up once the paint job is finished to eliminate the cloud particles left behind. Alternatively, you may turn it down when the paint jobs in your spray booth are still in progress.
Zpar International is a leading manufacturer of high-quality powder coating spray booths, which are always accompanied by a first rate, after-sales customer service. We have a wide variety of powder coating booth options – from cartridge batch and batch powder paint booths to industrial batch ovens, we will help you find the one that fits your needs and preferences a T!