Top 6 Paint Spray Booth Design Considerations | Ultrimax | UK

The paint booth is an essential piece of kit for joinery, engineering and steel fabrication outfits. But how much do you and your team know about paint spray booth design, and why is it important?

Understanding the components that make up a spray booth, and the different configuration options will help you choose the most suitable booth setup for your business. On top of that, getting a handle on the maintenance requirements for each component will allow you to maintain your booth’s performance and efficiency throughout its lifetime.

What makes a good paint booth?

A spray booth is designed to:

Control hazardous materials – protecting your sprayers and the environment from the harmful effects of paint fumes, particles and dust.
Provide a controlled environment – eliminating environmental fluctuations such as temperature and humidity, which can affect the paint finish and drying times.
Provide a clean painting environment – removing dust and debris from the painting environment for the perfect finish.

A good paint booth is one that has the right set-up, design components and maintenance schedule to provide the very best:

Protection for your employees and the environment
Workspace for boosting productivity and finish quality
Solutions for reducing wastage.

Design elements to consider when buying a paint booth

1. Paint booth doors

Your choice of product and personnel booth doors is likely to be dictated by the space that you have available and whether you will be installing an indoor booth or an outdoor weatherised booth. You will also need to consider things such where you need your personnel doors to be located in relation to the layout of your workspace, and whether you need observation windows.

Product doors

Product doors are the entry point for the product that you will be spraying. There are different types of door available according to whether your booth is pressurised or non-pressurised.

Non-pressurised product doors

Product doors for non-pressurised booths contain intake filters to prevent contaminents such as dust and debris from entering the booth. They are available in two designs: swing door, and space-saving tri-fold.

Pressurised product doors

Pressurised product doors are solid. They do not contain filters because air enters the booth via a filtered intake plenum. This type of door is also available as swing or tri-fold, with or without observation windows. There is also the option of galvanised steel, aluminium or fabric roll-up doors for the ultimate space-saving solution.

Swing, multi-fold or roll-up design?

Here are some of the key facts, advantages and disadvantage of each style of door.

Swing doors

Swing doors come as standard and are the least expensive option. They are the go-to choice for sprayshops without any space restrictions.

Multi-fold doors

Businesses with large spray booths or space restrictions generally opt for an upgrade from standard to multi-fold doors.

Roll-up doors

Roll-up doors are the door of choice if you:

Need a large booth
Don’t have the space for swing or multi-fold doors
Need an outdoor weatherised booth

They are, however, the most expensive product door option – perhaps two or three times the price of standard swing doors. Roll-up doors are also usually the only suitable type of door for outdoor booths as standard and multi-fold designs cannot provide sufficient insulation and wind load protection.

Personnel doors

Your spray painters enter and exit the spray booth via the personnel doors. The main thing to consider is which side of the booth you want your personnel doors to be located and whether you need observation panels.

2. Paint booth walls

Paint booths have either single-skin or dual-skin walls. If you are looking to make cost savings, single-skin panels have the necessary strength and rigidity for high performance without any bells and whistles. The interior walls are also easier to clean than those of dual-skin designs. Although more expensive, dual-skin panels provide the structure for a stronger booth that will last longer than booths with single-skin walls. They are also insulated for sound and temperature regulation, and come with a white pre-coating as standard to improve reflectivity and visibility within the cabin.

3. Intake plenum (pressurised booths only)

The intake plenum provides a source of air into pressurised booths.It contains high-efficiency filters to remove any contaminants from the outside air before it enters the booth. Crossdraft booths have an intake plenum at the front of the booth, providing a horizontal flow of air. Downdraft, semi-downdraft and side-downdraft paint booths have an intake plenum located within the ceiling.

4. Exhaust chamber, pit and plenum

A booth’s exhaust filtration system plays the critical role of protecting the booth’s fans, stack and plenum from overspray contamination and build-up. It must do this without slowing airflow. Exhaust filters need to have a good holding capacity to avoid having to replace them too often.

How it works

The exhaust plenum removes air from the spray booth. An exhaust fan pulls the air out of the booth spray chamber, into the exhaust chamber and through a filter system that captures particles. The decontaminated air then passes through exhaust ducting and into the atmosphere.

The exact exhaust setup will depend on the type of booth that you are using.

Crossdraft and semi-downdraft booths – the exhaust plenum is located at the rear of the booth.

Side downdraft – exhaust plenums are positioned on both sides of the booth.

Downdraft booth – air is exhausted via a filtered exhaust pit that is designed according to the booth’s airflow requirements. The plenum can be found at the back of the booth or on both sides.

5. Air make-up unit (AMU)

Of course, air that is exhausted from a spray both must be replaced. Air will either be pulled into the booth directly from the building or pulled from outside and filtered through an AMU.

Features and benefits of an AMU system include:

Provides the booth with filtered air – no need to draw air from the building, which provides better working conditions and reduces operating costs.
Maintains a constant leaving-air temperature – temperature is consistent during the paint application process and curing.
Pulls in equal amounts of fresh air for every cubic foor of contaminated air exhausted – provides optimal air quality within the booth at all times.

6. Manometers (draft gauges)

A manometer, or draft guage, measures exhaust filter loading to indicate when filters are dirty and need to be replaced. Intake and exhaust filters should be replaced regularly to keep your paint booth clean and working efficiently.

Check monitoring requirements

Some applications and processes require a more complex monitoring system, such as a photohelic or magnehelic gauge. If you’re not sure what type of monitoring you need, give our tech guys a call for some friendly advice on 01302 856666.

The importance of filter maintenance

It is extremely important to choose the correct type of filters for your booth and to change them frequently, according to the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule. Clogged filters reduce the booth’s efficiency and effectiveness, putting your painters at risk and compromising the quality of your paint jobs.

Recap

When you buy a spray booth, it pays to have a clear understanding of:

The paint booth design that best meets your needs
How to maintain the individual components of the booth to keep it in the best possible working order.

Ultrimax can help you choose the right booth for your outfit and provide you with ongoing maintenance support throughout the lifespan of your equipment. Give our friendly support team a shout.

+44(0)1302 856666

Email:sales@ultrimaxcoatings.co.uk

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