Abstract: Apparatus and methods for coating an article on a flat line, powder coating system comprises a powder coating booth with a reduced inlet opening for articles to be coated and an enlarged outlet opening for coated articles. Powder spray guns of the tribo-electric type, or having internal charging electrodes, are arranged in rows with parallel tube spray heads and are disposed at a shallow angle with respect to the conveyor to spray powder onto the articles generally in the direction of conveyor movement. Baffle plates are installed under the spray guns so that any powder which collects on the spray guns does not fall on the articles being coated. Oversprayed powder is collected from a part of the booth intermediate the spray guns and the enlarged outlet opening. Preferably, the thickness of powder coating on the articles in the precured condition is measured and the system is controlled so that the coating thickness is uniform and of the desired thickness.

Abstract: Apparatus and process for extracting powder from a stream of powder laden air drawn from a manual powder spray booth in a first embodiment, with a cyclone recovery system, typically containing two cyclone separators for separating the powder from the air. The cyclone separators have a breakaway design to facilitate cleaning. The resulting cyclone cleaned air is drawn through a prefilter section by a fan section having serially stacked fans. The prefilter section further separates powder from the cyclone cleaned air. The resulting prefilter cleaned air is next filtered in a final filter section and exhausted to the air surrounding the cyclone recovery system. The invention also relates to an improved cyclone separator which incorporates a perforated thimble between the downwardly and upwardly moving vortexes in the cyclone separator to reduce the pressure drop across the cyclone separator.

Abstract: According to the invention, a system and method for controlling air flow through the interior of a powder spray booth includes a powder collection system for collecting oversprayed powder from the interior of the spray booth. The powder collection system includes a powder collector with a powder collection chamber, a pulse plenum chamber, and a fan plenum chamber containing a motor driven fan for drawing the air-entrained powder into the fan plenum chamber so that the oversprayed powder is collected on the cartridge filters and filtered air is exhausted from the fan plenum chamber through one or more final filters. A control system automatically adjusts the speed of the motor driven fan in response to pressure changes in the pulse plenum chamber and the fan exhaust chamber so that a substantially constant air flow is maintained through the powder collector.

Abstract: According to the invention, a system and method for controlling air flow through the interior of a powder spray booth includes a powder collection system for collecting oversprayed powder from the interior of the spray booth. The powder collection system includes a powder collector with a powder collection chamber, a pulse plenum chamber, and a fan plenum chamber containing a motor driven fan for drawing the air-entrained powder into the fan plenum chamber so that the oversprayed powder is collected on the cartridge filters and filtered air is exhausted from the fan plenum chamber through one or more final filters. A control system automatically adjusts the speed of the motor driven fan in response to pressure changes in the pulse plenum chamber and the fan exhaust chamber so that a substantially constant air flow is maintained through the powder collector.