Wa. Heitbrink et al., A COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL AND HIGH-VOLUME LOW-PRESSURE SPRAY-PAINTING GUNS, American Industrial Hygiene Association journal, 57(3), 1996, pp. 304-310
The effect of spray-painting gun choice, high volume-low pressure (HVL
P) or conventional, on solvent and particulate overspray concentration
s was experimentally studied in a downdraft spray-painting booth. This
experiment was conducted by repeatedly applying two coats of paint to
a car body sheil. The two spray-painting guns were a gravity-fed conv
entional and a gravity-fed HVLP gun. During each experimental run, par
ticulate overspray concentrations, solvent vapor concentrations, film
thickness on the autobody, and mass of paint were measured. The film t
hickness per mass of paint for the HVLP gun was 33% higher than that f
or the conventional spray-painting gun. This difference was statistica
lly significant (p = 0.0015). Apparently, the HVLP spray-painting gun
had a much higher transfer efficiency than the conventional spray-pain
ting gun. Also, the particulate overspray concentration per unit of fi
lm thickness for the conventional spray-painting gun was twice that of
the HVLP gun. Again, this difference was statistically significant (p
= 0.0009). Finally, the HVLP spray-painting gun reduced the overall s
olvent vapor concentrations measured in the booth by 21%, which was no
t statistically significant. However, solvent vapor exposures measured
on the worker were reduced by a factor of 2 when using the HVLP gun.
This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.02).