Retractable Spray Booth Advantages
Retractable industrial spray booths offer four advantages over fixed spray booths for metal fabricators and other industrial companies that include in-house finishing operations:
- Minimized material handling
- Reduced rework
- Optimized floor space
- Improved dry times
Individually, each of these benefits provide clear advantages that fall into the “that would be nice” category when it comes to contemplating acquiring industrial retractable spray booths. Headaches will be alleviated, finger pointing will lessen, and time will be saved.
Collectively, though, these four advantages can add up to some significant cost reductions, as well as improved customer satisfaction — not only for individual jobs but collectively for the company.
1. Minimized Material Handling
Say you need to paint a large fabricated metal product such as a bulk storage tank. To do so, you need to move that heavy object from the last workstation on your shop floor to a fixed paint booth somewhere else in your facility.
Even if the spray booth is close by, you still have to go through all the same steps: clear a path to the spray booth, hook it up to your overhead crane, drop it onto a rolling cradle, and push it into the booth.
Typically, this process can take anywhere from 3–4 hours and can involve several people. Multiply 3–4 hours by the number of people involved and you end up with the total man hours you essentially waste every time you have to finish a large object. Granted, it’s not as bad as sending a product out of house for finishing but there is definitely a better way to work.
With retractable industrial spray booths, you can basically install your enclosure in the workspace a piece will occupy before it goes to finishing. Tucked away to the side, the enclosure can be unfurled around the product when it’s ready for painting. No clearing a path, no cranes, and no moving oversized, heavy objects required.
2. Reduced Rework
Whenever you move a heavy object, it invites the possibility that it may get damaged. This is of particular concern during the finishing stage of a project, when moving it out of a fixed paint booth runs the risk of damaging the paint that has just been applied to the work piece, initiating a round of rework.
If you remove the need to move the product — and instead bring the industrial spray booth to the product with a retractable enclosure — the risk is minimized. And while this won’t eliminate all causes of rework from your workflow, it will definitely have a positive effect on your yield.
3. Optimized Floor Space
One of the pillars of lean manufacturing is efficient plant floor design that facilitates material flow. Typically, this means that workspaces are organized around product families, rather than by production departments.
It’s extremely disruptive, then, for a typical lean manufacturing production line to have to transport a product to the finishing department (i.e., the fixed spray booth) so that that stage of the process can be completed.
Instead, why not bring industrial spray booths to the work cells that require finishing stages? Paint products right then and there without disruptive process flow thanks to a retractable enclosure
4. Improved Dry Times
Believe it or not, some retractable industrial spray booths feature drafting technology that is superior to that found in many fixed paint booths. This helps these enclosures improve dry times and quality.
Each Duroair retractable industrial spray booth, for example, comes equipped with vented or non-vented air filtration systems designed using our patented taper-draft airflow technology.
An efficient alternative to prevalent downdraft and cross-draft technologies, taper-draft technology creates an airflow envelope around a product, providing high levels of CFM and air turbulence and creating a wicking process that pulls moisture off the work piece, greatly enhancing coating dry times. Without any drying aids, taper draft achieves significantly faster dry times than traditional paint booths
Quantifying the Benefits of Retractable Industrial Spray Booths
To figure out just how much a retractable industrial spray booth will benefit your operation, contact Duroair for a free consultation with one of our clean air experts today.
When you speak, they’ll be able to answer more detailed questions about the benefits of a retractable spray booth and, if you give them enough details to analyze your unique situation, they can calculate an internal rate of return (IRR) for one of our tailored retractable industrial spray booth installations.
