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Safety in the spray booth is extremely important. You’ve got your safety glasses, steel toed boots, spray suits, and explosion proof lights. You quit smoking in the booth in the 80’s. So you’re safe, right? Hmmm… What about those grounding straps? They are there, but when you don’t hook them up, nothing happens. Usually…. So why use them at all? And are they working? First, let’s discuss flash point. The flash point of a coating or solvent is the temperature at which there is sufficient flammable vapor on the surface of the liquid to support combustion. The lower the flash point, the more flam ..read more

Are porcupine rollers the solution for outgassing bubbles on concrete floors? So you’re coating a concrete floor in an area that isn’t climate controlled and you keep getting outgassing bubbles. You’ve tried to pop them with a porcupine roller, but they keep showing up. As the coating sets up, you’re afraid to walk back onto it to pop those last ones. You know it. The bubbles know it. They have won. And they are laughing at you with their tiny bubble laughs that only they can hear. So what’s a painter to do? Interesting fact: Porcupines can have up to 30,000 quills. So what’s the solution to t ..read more

Are you soaking your air spray gun in solvent to keep it clean?  If you are, you are ruining your gun.  Soaking your gun will destroy the packings.  It will also introduce solvent into the air passages where it is not intended. The only areas that should be cleaned with solvent are the exterior surfaces of the gun, the fluid passages, aircap, needle, and fluid nozzle. If you want to soak your gun in solvent, you should also invest in a packing kit.   You’re going to need it….    The post Still soaking your air spray gun in solvent? first appeared on strands ..read more

A coatings contractor recently asked me to look at a failure on a job that he had completed within the last year.  The job had been to coat the tube steel legs on a new cooling tower, and the paint was “splitting and separating” as reported by the owner.  The tower was located in an exterior urban environment in Iowa without chemical exposure.  The job seemed fairly simple, and I had specified the products myself.  The coatings system included a moisture cured aluminum primer and an aliphatic polyurethane.  I had delivered the materials to the jobsite myself, so I was ..read more

When I visit plants for a tune up in their spray shops, I almost always notice one thing. Painters using air spray guns have their gun atomization air pressure turned up way too high. I often see it turned up as high as it will go. For most plants, that’s about 120 psi. This is especially true in shops with lots of painters and high turnover. Everybody wants high production rates, and that includes painters. Pulling the trigger with high air pressure gives the feel of power, speed, and high productivity. Who wouldn’t like that? Before anyone gets addicted to high air pressures, let’s ask ourse ..read more

Choosing an agitation system for your new pressure pot requires some thought.  First of all, do you need an agitator?  I would recommend that you use an agitator if you will be spraying coatings with heavy particulates, such as organic or inorganic zincs.  If you don’t agitate these coatings, the zinc will quickly settle out.  You should also consider using an agitator if you are planning to leave coatings in the pot between uses and you want to mix it prior to each use.   If you determine that you need an agitator, you’ll need to choose between a direct drive or gear ..read more

The use of solvent recyclers can greatly reduce the need for virgin solvent purchases and waste disposal.  A solvent recycler works by using distillation, which separates volatile and nonvolatile solutions in a solvent. The solution is boiled and the vapors are condensed back into liquid in a separate tank.  The non-volatile portion of the liquid remains as a solid at the bottom of the recycler for disposal.  In a paint shop, this portion is the paint solids that will not evaporate.   Unfortunately, water is also a volatile solution, and it will end up in the recycled solve ..read more

If you are getting fisheyes when applying solvent based coatings with air spray equipment, the problem might be your air.  Solvent based coatings will attempt to escape from any moisture droplets, causing fisheyes.  Frequently, the contamination can be viewed in the center of the fisheye.  So why is there water in your air?  You might be surprised at how many paint shops don’t have a moisture and oil separator in the compressed air line leading to the paint booth.  Of the shops that do have a moisture and oil separator installed, many are full of water or inoperable.&n ..read more

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