Spray booths are installations where it is vital to ensure adequate airflow system. A spray booth allows the optimum conditions for the application and material drying to be achieved by controlling the air flow in and out of the booth, with user control of temperature, humidity and pressure values.
To determine the optimum type of airflow in an installation, different factors are considered.
On the one hand, it is important to ensure compliance with the requirements of the UNE-EN 16985 standard, which meets the safety needs of workers and the environment during the spraying process in booths.
On the other hand, the needs of each client must be decisive in deciding what type of installation to carry out. The possibilities of the working space, the production volume, and the type of product to be painted help us to offer the customer a tailormade solution.
Pressurised spray booths can have different airflows. Depending on the specifications of each industry, the installation could be customized. These are most common airflows:
Spray booths with downdraft airflow
In this type of painting cabins the air enters through the ceiling of the booth filtered and flows vertically towards the extraction pit located on the floor -picture 1-. This type of installation requires civil works on site, so it is it is important to know the amount of surface area available at the customer’s site.
It is also possible to assembly a vertical air flow through a spray booth with a raised floor by means of a metal grating and with an access ramp.
Donwdraft flow is the most common and longest established form of airflow installation, however there are other options to suit customers with different needs
Picture 1. Vertical airflow
Spray booths with horizontal airflow
The horizontal or crossfraft airflow system is the most simple and a common option for basic spray booths. The air is drawn front the front to the back, so is the most common solution for spraybooths with side doors or more specifically for wood treatment spray booths. One of the benefits of this kind of painting booths and airflow system is that allows high flexibility in part sizes and low operating costs.
Spray booths with semi-horizontal or semi-downdraft airflow
In these booths, the filtered air enters through the ceiling, flows vertically, but is extracted or through both sides of the booth, using the side collectors located along the lower part of the booth’s side walls – semi-downdraft option in picture 2 – or thorugh back collectors, located on the back wall of the cabin – semi-horizontal option in picture 3-.
This is a more flexible solution, which adapts to workspaces where civil works cannot be carried out and offers a high level of painting cabin efficiency.
These sidewall collector systems are also used in the preparation areas of painting equipment due to their high extraction and filtering capacity.
Picture 2. Semi-downdraft airflow with side collectors
Picture 3. Semi horizontal airflow with back collectors
In 360 Zolutions we have 15 years of experience designing and installing painting equipments with different airflow systems, following customer requirements and lookinf for the maximu eficiency. Check out our portfolio with different examples and ask our team if you have any doubts about the type of installation that best suits your needs.
