For repair shops, the paint booth is one of the most important, yet time consuming stations to operate. Most paint booths are a tightly-sealed enclosed space with fans and filters. So, under normal circumstances, no paint should be able to escape the room. However, paint booths often run into issues involving dust, the smell of paint inside and out, and over spray on vehicles in the lot.
How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
To be frank, if your paint booth experiences any of the above, it’s not working properly. You could have a variety of issues such as an improperly sealed booth, faulty fan, or a filter not doing its job. If paint can be seen and smelled outside of the paint booth and on the other cars in the lot, you will to need to take the steps to fix it.
- Rogue Over Spray
- Dirty Booth
- Odor Complaints
- Problems With Air Make-Up Units
- Your Booth Is Very Loud
Rogue Over Spray: How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
To tackle rogue over spray, you need to change your filters on a regular basis. Typically, a good way to know when to change the filters is through a manometer. A manometer is a gauge that visualizes the status of the paint booth filters for the operator. In most areas, a manometer is legal requirement for body shops. So, for legal purposes and tracking issues with your paint booth, you should install a manometer. On the plus side, they’re relatively cheap and easy to install. Beyond that, if you see any over spray sticking around both inside and outside of your booth, it’s probably time to change your filters.
However, the issue could also involve the quality of your paint booth filters. The higher quality the filter is, the higher the percentage of over spray it can collect efficiently. So, if over spray remains a problem even after a filter change, it might be time to upgrade.
Although, you should also look into the height of your paint booth duct. If you’ve changed or upgraded the filter and still have over spray issues, you may need to increase the height of your duct. A duct that’s higher up can capture any over spray that is lingering in the air.
Beyond that, it’s never a bad idea to regularly inspect the fans in your booth. The fans inside of a paint booth typically move air at speed which correlates to the size of the area. So, if the fan isn’t moving at the correct speed, you can end up with over spray problems. A good way to check your fans is through an anemometer– a gauge that provides operators a visual of fan air speed. If it’s slower than the recommended, you may need to replace it. However, if you have an adjustable fan, correct the speed to fit the size of the room.
Dirty Booth: How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
Dust and dirt in your booth is never a good sign. With dirt or dust, you’ll have lower quality paint finishes. So, it’s important to clean your booth regularly in order to avoid potential imperfections. A few good ways to help maintain a clean paint booth is by using a sponge mop and booth coating.
Odor Complaints: How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
Whenever you paint in your booth, it’s expected to have some paint odor. However, the exhaust system in your booth should prevent it from staying around for very long and spreading to the outside. So, if you can smell any odor outside of the paint booth, close or far away, you need to tackle the issue.
Problems With Air Make-Up Units: How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
First and foremost, if you have an air make-up unit, you should look into setting it up to run with positive pressure. However, it only needs to be slightly positive. However, you should also check to power supply regularly. Although, you should also look into your gas supply levels. Beyond that, you can also reset the control panel for it in your booth to see if it solves the issues. If it doesn’t you may need to have a professional come in and take a look.
Your Booth Is Very Loud: How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
If you begin to notice your paint booth is much louder than it was before, you’ll need to take a look a look at the fan. It’s important to perform any maintenance based on the manual you received from your paint booth manufacturer. If you can’t resolve the issue, you may need to place the fan inside the duct to reduce noise.
Garmat Paint Booths: How To tackle Problems With Your Paint Booth
At Garmat USA, we are all about production efficiencies both for your shop, and for our operation. We thrive on coming up with new methods to address the needs of our customers while meeting their budgets.
We are also dedicated to helping you save on your cost of operation. Garmat USA equipment is designed to reduce energy consumption, giving you the best possible return on your investment.
Every product and every improvement is developed with your business goals in mind- Lowering your operating costs and Increasing your production.