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Industrial Paint System, What do you use and like?

BRHMFG

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 9, 2014
Location
South Dakota
Anyone out there use electrostatic? Like it? Is it worth the money? We paint large fabricated structures with a mix of tubing frame and sheet metal so lots of square feet to cover. Also some small parts.
Currently we are simply using a pressure pot. Basically same as HVLP only we draw out of 5 gallon pot instead of the little cup on the gun.
Recently started using Sherwin Williams Sher-Kem Paint and Like the finish but it's a challenge to spray with our set up. Seems to get lots of overspray.
Former shop I worked at uses Air Assisted Airless. This would likely be what I would move to for now, just not sure it will solve my problems.
My concern with electrostatic would be keeping a good ground to parts while painting, especially if we had a hanging rack which would tend to get coated with paint on hooks, would that be trouble to get a ground to parts. I have no idea how electrostatic works, never saw a system. In theory it sounds awesome but have heard some hate it.
I'd like to hear what is commonly used out there for production painting for smaller shops. We manufacture a product and I'm starting to realize that the paint system is almost as critical to overall efficiency as the fabrication.
 
I thought Nordson was the big player in electrostatic.
Regardless, find out whomever the leader is,
Show some pix of your parts to the sales people, and see what they suggest.
 
Highly recommended would be air assisted airless, try Wagner, maybe the Wagner Puma or larger depending on your needs.
 
Our experience is the system is able to maintain the ground despite the paint on hooks. Even with composite bushes between metal parts and the hooks the ground seems to be able to jump these. The main plant in Ireland uses a high pressure Wagner system and it works very well with the electrostatic. We have a Graco ProMix 2KE and get plenty of trouble with it (certainly some of this is down to lack of experience in house). Electrostatic can sometimes struggle getting into narrow crevices. We usually have to paint the awkward spots first with a small cup gun before doing the rest with electrostatic. It does noticeably wrap around our cylindrical parts and fewer strokes are required to cover the whole area.
 
Our experience is the system is able to maintain the ground despite the paint on hooks. Even with composite bushes between metal parts and the hooks the ground seems to be able to jump these. The main plant in Ireland uses a high pressure Wagner system and it works very well with the electrostatic. We have a Graco ProMix 2KE and get plenty of trouble with it (certainly some of this is down to lack of experience in house). Electrostatic can sometimes struggle getting into narrow crevices. We usually have to paint the awkward spots first with a small cup gun before doing the rest with electrostatic. It does noticeably wrap around our cylindrical parts and fewer strokes are required to cover the whole area.

Do electrostatic guns have the option to toggle the electrical charge on/off at the gun for painting tight corners?
 
The powder coating company that I use seem to have no problems grounding work*. They just use a length of disposable thin gauge copper or steel wire attached to a convenient part of the work back to a clean ground terminal elsewhere on the rack. Obviously the rack gets covered with the powder as well, to some extent and it all gets cooked on when the lot go into the oven, but there's only a small area to clean when it comes out to get a good ground on the next batch. With paint, the cleaning of the terminal could just be a wipe with a rag and some reducer/thinners.


* Came in one day and the lad was cursing because the powder was going everywhere and diddn't seem to want to stick on the parts. Silly sod had forgot to ground them...
 
Electro powder falls off racks ,fixtures......electro paint does not ...so it builds up just the same as plain old airless...electro is just a bit of a paint saving............I worked in industrial coating last 10 years(not by choice ,I might add),and electro was expensive and just too complicated for the retards who spray industrial paint ...we used nothing but Graco airless pumps ,the only way to meet the EPA organic solvent limits .........water base paints ,low EPA,very high wear and tear on equipment.
 
For us the advantage of electrostatic would not be so much paint savings as exhaust/filtration/heat loss savings.
Does electrostatic require less exhaust? Also I tend to get some overspray dust on lower portions after painting up higher which I would hope electrostatic would mostly eliminate. I think jumping to air assisted airless would already help a lot. Doesn't seem like a pressure pot is geared for production painting
 
For us the advantage of electrostatic would not be so much paint savings as exhaust/filtration/heat loss savings.
Does electrostatic require less exhaust?

Your still going to need to exhaust the paint fumes (thinner et all) from the building.
 
At the sandblasters there would be 10-15 painters spraying inside a big shed ,roller doors open all along ,but no mechanical ventilation,due to the paint buildup on blowers and fans...Only sprayed low VODs,with Graco airless pumps and Wagner guns......The overspray used to form a sort of gravel,that would become difficult to wheel paint spray gear thru.Then a bobcat would be used to clear out the shed ,down to sand ,as there was no concrete floor.Col was a cheapskate,for sure.
 








 
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