Fundamentals of Paint Spray Booth Lighting : Choose the Right Lighting

A paint booth comprises of several crucial features that aid in its typical functioning. In order to keep out the contaminants and dust, the booth is kept closed with air tight doors even though permitting the inward and outward movement of goods. The air-paint aerosol inside the booth, due to its pressurized construction, enables the air to be forcibly exhausted by way of filters. This aerosol inside the paint booth is flammable and combustible.

Understandably, thinking about the inflammable conditions inside a paint booth, designing an effective lighting program would require many parameters to be kept in mind.

General paint booth lighting should attend the following essentials: -

Illumination of the surrounding

Hazards and safety control

Ease of servicing and maintenance, and finally

Consumption of energy

The adequacy of lighting is of unique interest in an automotive paint booth due to the fact of the size and intricacies in design of modern automobiles. The 3 important aspects to consider are the intensity of individual lights and their number and locations as well as the focus over the work location leaving no shadows.

The hazards inside a paint booth arise due to the inflammable nature of the aerosol. The use of electronic ballasts, mirrored reflectors and high output extended life phosphors (ELP) and secure light fixtures as per class and division is to be ensured. The fixtures for the fluorescent lights really should be inside recessed panels inside the paint booth. These need to be water and corrosion proof and meet Class I and Division 2 standards. If these are not inside the recessed panels, they need to meet Class I and Division 1 standards. There ought to be an interlock provision to disengage and quit paint spray activity when the access panel for the light is opened for routine maintenance and servicing of either the lights or the ballasts.

There ought to be ready access to the lamp and the ballast for the purpose of their routine maintenance and servicing. Because the lens will get fogged with an ongoing paint activity, it may well be a great notion to use easily replaceable cling film for covering them. Consumption of energy is really effortlessly addressed by the correct selection of the lamp and ballast.