If you’re in the market for a top-notch paint booth, it’s always critical to pick a unit which can effectively filter out overspray, other contaminants, and protect your operators and the environment. More importantly, it should deliver consistent quality finishes. When it comes to achieving consistently top-quality paint jobs, investing in excellent spray booth lighting fixtures always plays an essential role. With the right lighting, your booth operators can be able to have a clear vision to ensure even and smooth finishes all the time. Generally speaking, there are several key factors, which will come into play in your quest to acquire the best lighting fixtures for your unit’s unique needs and preferences.
In the first place, the lighting you pick ought to enable your team to always see color in a way that’s devoid of tinting effects. Ideally, white, full-spectrum lights are a good solution since they can mimic natural light to provide your operators with the most precise color vision. Also, spray paint booth lighting fixtures have to deliver sufficient luminosity to enable your team to see finer paint job textures more clearly. It is important to note lights whose luminosity is either too bright or too dim will impede your operators’ capacity to notice nuance details of the job at hand.
Consistency is always a major issue when choosing paint booth lights. Essentially, the rule of thumb is going for products that can deliver consistent light coverage of your booth. Choosing uneven lighting fixtures only results in creating shadows around the objects being painted and hard-to-see areas. Lastly, the placement of lights is also important. According to your unit’s exact operations, you will need to strategically position lighting fixtures in those areas that necessitate maximum light coverage.
What are the most common lighting fixtures for paint booths?
Before opting for any spray booth lighting fixtures, it will be wise to determine the areas in your unit which will require the most illumination. First of all, there are corner lights that are noted for their ease of setup and their capability to provide all-round light coverage. Since they can be set up in 90o corners, these spray paint booth lights happen to be extremely versatile solutions. This definitely means they may be the right option if you need more illumination in one specific zone of your booth or even if you require an “all-area” coverage.
On the other hand, there are ceiling lighting fixtures whose main advantage is their capability to provide vertical unimpeded illumination from above. Yet, ceiling lights are often not the best solution since their overhead placement can result in the creation of shadows in places like beneath the object being finished. Finally, you could choose wall lights that are yet another common paint booth lighting solution. These products are installed flush into the walls to ensure they can’t get in the way of booth operators. As they can only deliver sufficient illumination for the front, sides, and back of the object being painted, their use may create blindspots which can impair the accuracy of your team.
What are the most common varieties of paint booth light tubes?
To begin with, there are LED lights which are known to deliver brilliant directional illumination. True LED lights have both high and low lumen output, with high output lights being placed high up in large booths. The lower lumen lights generally do a better job of displacing the light closer up. They are as well renowned for their ease of maintenance and impressive energy-saving attributes. LED spray booth lights come with a tolerably long lifespan and will enable you to save substantial money on your unit’s overall operational costs. Upon comparison between T8 LED bulbs and T12 LED tubes, the former variety is noted for being much more efficient and cost-effective.
Alternatively, there are fluorescent lights that are known for their great efficiency and cost-saving features. Typically, these sorts of spray paint booth lights are the most common solution for booths due to their diminished heat output, longevity, and first-rate efficiency. The main disadvantage of these products is they aren’t directional. This shortcoming means fluorescent lights aren’t well suited for the consistent illumination of specific regions of a unit.
Other factors to consider when choosing paint booth lighting fixtures
Using color-corrected lights can be the right choice if you wish your team to achieve much more accuracy in color-matching paint jobs. In this industry, 5,000K is the unit used to measure color-corrected light or close-to-sunlight illumination. The exact brightness of a paint booth is gauged in foot candles. Should your booth need a greater foot-candle intensity, you may install light reflectors in your booth. This is a convenient and hassle-free means of increasing the luminosity of your unit.
There are energy-efficient dual ballasts that will allow your operators to customize the level of illumination in your booth in accordance with the different operations being performed. For instance, if less light is desired like during prepping operations, one-half of the lights may be deactivated. On the flip side, all lights can be activated when painting operations along with detail work are underway. It is also highly recommended to settle for explosion-proof lights because when they come into contact with flammable paint, they won’t explode. Federal and state regulations expect spray booth lighting fixtures to be certified for Class I, Division II, Groups A-D components.
ZPar International is a foremost manufacturer of top-quality spray paint booths that come complete with the finest lighting fixture solutions, which guarantee top-notch and consistent spray booth efficiency and productivity at all times. Give us a call today!