Color Change Time in a Booth

Rodger Talbert has more than 30 years of experience in the powder coating industry.

Q: We have an old powder booth that uses a cartridge module reclaim system and we are having trouble keeping up with an increasing number of color changes per day. We have two larger volume colors that we reclaim with dedicated modules and one module used for all other colors that we do not recover for reuse. We are changing colors often and it takes 30–45 minutes to get from one reclaim color to another in our cartridge booth. We have begun to spray a lot more powder to waste as the color change frequency increases and we cannot afford the lost production time needed to move in a reclaim module.

We have seen booths that are supposed to be able to color change in 12–15 minutes, reclaim to reclaim. Is this really true? We only have space for one booth and we want to be sure it will work before spending the high dollars that a booth of this kind will cost.

A: The simple answer is yes; it is true that the right equipment can be installed to give you a very rapid color change, allowing you to go from reclaim to reclaim in less than 15 minutes and much faster if you do not reclaim the overspray. Understand that the entire installation has to have the right features for fast color change. The booth itself is constructed of a non-conductive material with a sandwich wall construction. It is typically smaller than most booth cabins and the walls are smooth and sloped to the extraction point. The airflow is a downdraft style and may include blow-down nozzles to move powder to the reclaim system and minimize accumulation inside the booth. The guns are very critical to the faster color change also. They will have several fast-color change features including automated interior purging and blow-off nozzles to clean the gun body. An in/out gun mover is used to withdraw the guns for blow-down. A feed center is used to contain the feed hopper and delivery pumps. It has features to speed up color change and contain powder during color change. The entire color change process is carefully designed and executed for speed and efficiency. If you buy all the right stuff, staff it correctly and maintain it, you can indeed change colors effectively in less than 15 minutes. Good training and maintenance are essential to keep the system working as intended. As you correctly mentioned, this type of booth has a high price tag so you need to do the math to see if the improvement in production time and the collection of higher volumes of over-sprayed powder provide a fast enough payback to justify the initial cost. Also, remember the downtime needed to switch from the old booth to the new.

Even with the high capital cost and the installation time, you may find that the payback is fast and the flexible booth is well worth the expense.

Rodger Talbert

Rodger Talbert began his career in coatings in 1976 when he went to work for a small company that does metal fabrication and custom coating. He worked there for 10 years, rising to the position of VP of Sales and Marketing. He left there to work as a sales engineer for a larger company that designs and builds coating systems, and worked there for seven years. In 1993, Talbert started his own business as a consultant. He ran his own corporation for 15 years before joining The Powder Coating Institute as technical director in 2009. He served as the PCI Executive Director until June 2012.