AMU Archives : Paint-Booths.com

Save Time and Money with These Top Spray Booth Accessories

If you want to get the maximum use out of your paint booth, consider investing in some upgrades. Accessories such as all-in-one control panels, LED lights, and AMUs improve your booth’s efficiency and performance, and special coatings simplify cleaning. Learn more about how to save money with the right accessories for your spray booth.

Mixing Rooms

It may seem easy to just store your paints, primers, glazes, and other chemicals in the corner of your shop, but keeping these things in the open presents a fire hazard. And it’s difficult to clean up accidental spills all over your shop’s floor.

With a well-built mixing booth, you have a dedicated and safe place to store your paints and stains. All of our mixing rooms are ETL-certified and compliant with NFPA standards. Built-in ventilation systems run continuously, removing the fumes and harmful particles created by mixing and storing paint and other chemicals.

Energy-Efficient LED Lights

Your paint booth probably has lights already, but built-in illumination isn’t always optimal, especially for finishing jobs that require a lot of precision. When you upgrade your booth to energy-efficient LED flat-panel lights. The LED lay-in panels are slim and easy to install, and are suitable for both heated and unheated booths. LED panels drastically reduce energy use, costing you less money on each power bill. Additionally, they last for an extremely long time and come with a five-year warranty. Our panels have up to 60,000 hours of run time, which equates to over 6 years (if you left them on 24/7). Another great benefit is that your energy company may give you a credit for upgrading to LED so the upgrade isn’t as costly as you think.

Air Makeup Units (AMU)

To keep the proper air pressure in your paint booth, you need to replace the air that gets exhausted during operation. The easiest way to do this is with an air makeup unit (AMU), which balances air pressure inside the booth by automatically providing the right amount of replacement air.

Installing an AMU is a better, more-efficient solution for air pressure management than trying to use the HVAC system to regulate the air pressure in the shop. Plus, AMUs are heated, so there are even more benefits:

Faster finish times
Temperature control for even curing
Fewer airborne particles and contaminants inside the booth

A heated AMU can be one of the most cost-effective upgrades for your paint booth.

Air Hose Storage Solutions

Air hoses that are left can be a tripping hazard. Easily keep your air lines stored in reels to your air hoses from getting tangled or tripped on during operation. Many air line reels can be installed anywhere, and come with automatic retraction systems that prevent the hose from becoming loose or unrolling.

Easy-To-Clean Coatings

To keep your spray booth functioning properly, it’s essential to clean the overspray that gets on the ceiling, walls, and floors. This can be a tedious job, but there are several accessories that can make it easier. White Out coating is a water-based spray that creates a film that covers paint booth walls, restoring a “like new” appearance even in booths with extensive overspray. The new white walls improve light quality in the booth. When the film gets covered with overspray, you can simply peel it off and respray the White Out on your booth’s interior.

It’s vital to keep the air inside the booth as clean as possible to reduce dust and debris that can ruin the quality of a finish. This adds to the life of your paint booth filters and keeps your paint booth fan clean. The Grippy Mat is a floor mat that traps dirt, dust, and overspray, reducing the chance that these particles will enter the airflow inside the booth. Our starter bundle includes a Grippy Mat floor covering, particle control solution, and an easy-to-use sprayer.

Operational controls

A paint booth control panel simplifies operation, allowing you to manage your booth’s lights, exhaust fans, and other crucial hardware from one point of contact. All of our ETL-certified spray booths come with electric control panels. If you purchase an uncertified booth model, you can upgrade to one of our ETL-listed control boxes; we have both single-phase and three-phase models.

Optimize Your Paint Booth with Key Accessories

If you want to make it easier to operate, monitor, and clean your paint booth, consider upgrading it with some accessories. We carry a wide range of top-quality options, and you can count on our team for advice about which upgrades are best for your booth and shop. If you have any questions about choosing the right lights, AMU, or control panel for your booth, contact our friendly sales team. We’ll provide expert solutions completely customized for your needs.

What is the Difference Between an AMU & an MUA?

Maintaining good indoor air quality and balanced air pressure is essential for a safe and healthy working environment in any shop. When you operate a paint booth in your shop, it can create problems with indoor air pressure and quality if you do not take precautions. This is especially true in smaller areas where the pressure changes caused by a paint booth can quickly affect the air in the entire building.

Fortunately, there are two ways to maintain good air quality and proper air pressure: providing make-up air (MUA) to the shop or adding an air makeup unit (AMU) to the paint booth. Understanding the operational differences in these solutions as well as the potential benefits can help you determine which option is right for you.

Paint Booth Operation Causes Negative Air Pressure

During paint booth operation, air is exhausted from the booth. While it is necessary to exhaust air in order to exhaust the overspray from painting, this process can quickly change the volume of air in the booth, causing negative air pressure to develop.

There are several problems that negative air pressure can cause:

A vacuum effect that pulls dirt and debris into the paint booth
Uneven curing of the finish on painted items
Poor indoor air quality
Drafts and temperature fluctuations
Suction that makes the doors and windows hard to open

To restore balanced air pressure inside the booth, air must be added back in to replace the air that is exhausted.

Make-Up Air Balances Shop Air Pressure

To make up the air pressure inside the paint booth, you need to pull in new air to replace the exhausted air. In some setups, a booth will replace exhausted air by drawing in air directly from the shop’s interior atmosphere. However, pulling the shop’s air into the booth can cause changes to the pressure of the shop at large. In a small building, normal paint booth operations can quickly lead to negative air pressure in the entire shop.

Make-up air (MUA) is intended to replace the air from the shop that is used and exhausted by the paint booth. MUA solutions sometimes function as part of the HVAC system to draw replacement air from the outside. It could also function without a HVAC system to push air into the building. This extra ventilation restores air pressure and improves the overall quality of air inside the shop.

An Air Makeup Unit Provides Additional Benefits

A more popular option is an air makeup unit (AMU) which balances air pressure and improves air quality by providing replacement air into the booth itself. An AMU is designed to provide the right amount of air into the paint booth to balance the volume of air exhausted.

Many AMU models offer the ability to heat the air for a temperature-controlled spraying environment. The heating feature allows the AMU to be put into “cure” mode. When in this mode, the paint is cured (or baked) at a very high temperature and is done in less than an hour. This feature increases the production capacity of any shop.

Providing replacement air directly into the booth eliminates negative air pressure in the shop
AMUs can reduce the amount of dust and other particles that can ruin the paint finish
Temperature-controlled air can reduce the time it takes for a finish to cure, especially in colder environments

In large shops that have more than one paint booth, installing AMUs for each booth provides more functionality than simply getting a single MUA solution for the shop itself.

Deciding Between an AMU and an MUA Solution

Paint booth operation creates air movement due to exhaust, and that air must be replaced to avoid issues caused by negative air pressure. A MUA shop solution provides replacement air to the interior of a shop, improving ventilation and reducing air pressure problems. An AMU provides air within the paint booth itself to balance the air pressure. Heated AMUs control the temperature inside the booth with warm air and can run cure cycles that ensure faster, consistent curing.

Standard Tools designs and builds the Sure-Cure AMU and MUA for these different air replacement circumstances. The units are built to a shop’s specific gas and power, CFM requirements and installation prerequisites. Although Standard Tools is a paint booth manufacturer, the Sure-Cure AMU can be built to be compatible with any brand paint booth. All of our air-replacement solutions improve the air quality and production level of a shop. Contact an expert at Standard Tools to get more information on the Sure-Cure AMU and MUA. The team can help you figure out which solution is best for your shop.

What Are the Benefits of an AMU?

Adding an Air Makeup Unit to a paint booth can provide several unique advantages that increase overall productivity and improve finish quality. While the basic function of an AMU is fairly simple, the number of benefits it offers is impressive. An AMU provides a solution to issues created by the air pressure imbalances that can occur during paint booth operation.

Counteracting Negative Air Pressure

During operation, the exhaust system of a paint booth utilizes and then expels a large volume of air. This significant amount of air movement can quickly create an imbalance of air pressure. When air leaves the inside of a booth without being replaced at the same rate, the internal air pressure quickly becomes lower than the external air pressure. A negative air pressure situation such as this can cause several adverse effects:

Strong drafts, especially around windows and doors
Low-quality indoor air
Imperfect paint curing
Malfunctioning exhaust fans
Poor temperature control
Suction pressure that makes doors difficult to open

The Air Makeup Unit fixes these issues by addressing the underlying cause: negative air pressure. The AMU provides air to a paint booth at the proper rate to replace the air that’s lost through exhaust. Many systems can automatically balance the pressure by making small adjustments to offset pressure changes such as a door opening.

Removing Air Particulates

The pressure and quality of the air inside a paint booth can have a significant effect on the overall finish of the coating. When there is negative air pressure inside the booth, it is easy for dirt and debris to be pulled in when a draft occurs. If the air inside the booth becomes contaminated with particulates, it can severely impact the condition of the final product.

An AMU provides clean, filtered air to a paint booth, improving the overall air quality and reducing particles and debris that can compromise the finish of the coating. This setup may also improve the overall air quality in the building itself, because there is no longer a need to draw unfiltered outdoor air inside to address pressure inequalities.

Reducing Curing Time

An AMU can improve productivity by reducing the time it takes to complete a project. It can take an inordinately long time for a finish to cure in cold air. Some AMU models have a heating option that can provide warm air to the booth, creating the ideal environment for optimal curing efficiency. A heated AMU may be especially helpful during the winter months to eliminate prolonged curing times due to cold temperatures.

Improving the Working Environment

An AMU can significantly improve the operation of a paint booth, enhancing both efficiency and finish quality. In addition, there are other advantages that an AMU can provide:

Faster curing time
Reduced load on a building’s HVAC system
Improved indoor air quality
Lower energy requirements
Less risk of personnel injuries from pressurized doors

Managing shop conditions and ensuring finish quality is easy when there is an AMU system controlling pressure and air quality.

Choosing the Right AMU

Adding an AMU to your paint booth is a simple way to improve your productivity, cut production costs, and ensure exceptional quality on all your finishes. There are several models available, and each one has unique advantages. Contact us to learn about all the options and determine which one is the best solution to your needs. You can give us a call at 888-312-7488 or email us at sales@paint-booths.com.

TOP 10 THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE ORDERING YOUR PAINT BOOTH.

When looking to buy a paint booth, there are a lot of factors to consider. It may seem overwhelming, but we’re here to help! Here’s our top ten things to consider when buying a paint booth. Considering these things will help you to determine what booth is right for you and will save you a lot of money and heartache by considering them BEFORE you buy your booth.

1. What are the dimensions of the building? We need to know the dimensions of the space you plan to put the paint booth. How tall are the ceilings?

2. What type of booth you are interested in? We have different styles of paint booths. From open-faced booths to large and enclosed truck booths. We have different air flow styles as well, from cross flow and side-down draft or semi-down draft or down draft … if you have a type or style you’re looking for, be sure to let us know. If you don’t know what type or airflow style would work best for you, no problem… our sales folks can help you determine the best booth to meet your painting needs.

3. What phase and/or voltage run through your building? We need to know the kind of power you have so we can make sure that your paint booth and/or your air makeup unit is designed to work in conjunction with it. Did you know that the majority of the time you can contact your power company and they can give you this information if you are unsure?

4. Do you need ductwork? Do you know how much ductwork will you need? One of the reasons we need to know the height of your building is because we need to determine how much ductwork is needed from the top of your paint booth straight out of the roof, plus some! In most states it is required that there is 6’ of ductwork exhausting up from the roof.

5. Are you adding heat to your booth? There are several benefits to decide on a heated paint booth. Heat makes it a more comfortable environment in the winter, but that is not why the majority of our customers decide to add heat. Sometimes, there isn’t enough airflow in the business to provide for the booth. (Click here to see if that applies to you). When you have a Sure-Cure AMU, you are able to significantly increase your production. You are able to paint, cure and cool in less than an hour, making your new booth the hardest working part of your business!

6. Have you contacted your city to find out what is required in your city or in your state? It’s important that you know before you order your booth what is required from your city or in your state. Find out what permits you will need and if there are special requirements, like and ETL-listed booth that you have to comply with. For example, if you have to have an ETL-listed booth, but you order a non-ETL booth, you will either have to order a new booth (that we offer already with ETL) or you will have to pay big bucks to have someone come and certify it. To be absolutely safe, you can always request that a fire marshal come and do a walk-through to advise you what you need to consider prior to ordering your booth.

7. Does your state require you to have fire suppression? It is extremely important to know the answer to this question so you can properly plan. Call your local authorities and get informed. We offer Fire Suppression systems from PyroChem or you may be able to provide a sprinkler system.

8. Do you want your booth powered-coated booth? Not only will your booth be a lot brighter, but it will also stand out and have a professional look to it. See how our booths are powder-coated.

9. Get everything you need in one quick swoop. We offer light bulbs for all of the booth’s light fixtures, as well as the electrical wiring kits that your electrician will need to wire your booth. Get everything ordered and shipped to you to setup and start using your booth. Easily add a supply of intake or exhaust filters to your order so that when they need to be changed, you have them on hand.

10. What other features can I add to my booth? Is there something you want on your paint booth like drive-thru doors, a connected mixing booth or extra lights? One thing that Standard Tools and Equipment does well is our ability to produce custom paint booths. Our engineers can design a booth to fit your needs. If you want your booth taller, wider or brighter… just let us have the opportunity to design your booth for you.

How to determine if a make-up air system is required: It’s simple math

Anytime a paint booth is installed in a building, the amount of exhausted air must be a consideration.

For example, a booth exhausting 13,000 cubic feet per minute installed in a building measuring 50 x50 x 15 (37,500 cubic feet), the air will change every two minutes. This produces a negative pressure condition on the building that can cause safety issues. If the building is equipped with gas-fired unit heaters, the negative pressure condition can actually pull gas from the pilot valves and put raw gas into the room. NFPA-33 addresses this with a calculation.

NFPA-33 A.7.3 “If the volume of the room or building where the exhaust system is located is not at least equal to 20 times the volumetric capacity of the fans (three air changes per hour), then additional make-up air should be provided.”

Going back to the 13,000 cfm exhaust fan. 13,000 x 20 = 260,000 cubic feet. The room would have to be 110’ x 110’x 20’ (264,500 cubic feet).

The rule of thumb is to provide the same amount of air being exhausted with some adjustment in the unit to provide the customer with the proper pressure he requires. Some may want slightly more positive pressure while some may want a neutral pressure building.

Make-up air units can be placed outside or inside as long as the intake air is drawn from the outside. The control panels are mounted inside the building and can be interlocked to the paint booth to operate simultaneously. If you want more information on the Sure-Cure units from Standard Tools and Equipment, visit us online.

The ductwork is simple, the discharge duct should be equipped with a diffuser to help distribute air more evenly into the room.

If you have any questions, give us a call and we’ll gladly assist in determining if more makeup air is needed. 800-312-7488.

Baby Its Cold Outside!! — Air Makeup Units

A favorite song of the winter holidays is ‘Baby, Its Cold Outside’. The crooners of the 1960s like Dean Martin, Andy Williams and Ann-Margret make this a fun song to hear. The fellow in this song reminds his girl of all of the problems of a cold winter night as she keeps trying to talk herself into leaving.

As we are bracing for this “Arctic Blast” about to hit us on the East Coast, we’re thinking of all those painters that have to open the building doors when the spray booth is used … and Baby, Its Cold Inside Too!!

At Standard Tools, we make heated air makeup units that can be added to your current system. Spray booths with intake plenums (or intake canopies) can be directly ducted to our Sure-Cure AMU system. Cross-flow or open-face booths can be supplied with Sure-Cure AMU systems designed to put heated air right into the building.

The Sure-Cure direct-gas-fired units can be heated with liquid propane or natural gas.
The units are ETL-listed to USA and Canadian safety standards and are designed to provide tempered air (for spraying) and up to 160-F for curing.
When ordering your unit, there are many options about power, layout and orientation.
Systems are available from 10,000 cfm to 26,000 cfm.
We offer ducting components and wiring harnesses.

The best part is that your unit can be built to your specifications and ready to ship to your facility in just a few weeks.

Stop opening the building doors to bring in the freezing air. OSHA requires a permanent spray area to be at least 65-F. Most coatings do not work well at colder temperatures, which can lead to poor quality and poor productivity.

Visit our website or call our Sales team for more information.

Air Makeup Units (AMUs) Are HUMMIN’

It’s going to be 85 in Greensboro, NC today, but cooler weather is just around the corner! How do I know that? Well, I just walked through our Sure-Cure air makeup unit (AMU) production shop, and things are hummin’. We have four units on the bench in process and several more in the queue this week. These Sure-Cure AMU’s are in big demand. ETL-certified and tested, they are among the safest units on the market today.

The Sure-Cure will provide gas-heated warm air inside your spray painting booth to speed curing time, even on the coldest days! With a guaranteed 80 degree rise over ambient air temperature, if it is 0 degrees outside it will be 80 degrees inside your booth! No more waiting hours or days for dry time. Plus you can put it into cure mode at the end of the day and go home. The unit will shut off automatically when the paint is cured.

If you have an Air Makeup Unit that is more than 10 years old you may be a candidate for a new high-efficiency Sure-Cure AMU. Many of the old style Air Makeup Unit’s contain heat exchangers that can crack over years of use. This greatly reduces the ability of the unit to heat the air to the desired temperature. It could also result in dangerous fumes being emitted into your booth or painting area!

Our units are popular because Standard Tools is committed to a 2 to 3 week turnaround in producing these units, even in the winter months. Other manufacturers take 8 to 12 weeks to ship an AMU! So get your order in today, and be ready for the cold when it gets here!

PAINT BOOTH AIR FLOW: HOW IT WORKS

During spray jobs in a paint booth, the exhaust system must draw substantial quantities of air out of the shop in order to operate. These volumes must be replenished with equal volumes of air coming into the booth.

AIR MAKE-UP (AMU) is defined as…a mechanical means of replacing air that has been exhausted out of the booth.

It’s simple…. it’s all about paint booth air flow. How much air in being put into the booth and how much is being taken out. Airflow while spraying takes the over-spray away from the paint job and out of the booth.

Air in – Air out. Air in – Air out. Air in – Air out. Air in – Air out. That’s it. With the Sure-Cure Air Makeup Unit, you control the amount of air pushed into your booth. Why would you need to push air into your booth?

NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE BOOTH PRESSURE
When the exhaust fan of the booth is turned on, it creates a “negative” air pressure in the booth cabin (taking out more air than is being put in). When there is a negative air pressure, the booth will try to suck in as much air as possible, including dirt and debris from outside the booth. THINK VACUUM CLEANERS.

To counter this “negative” pressure, an Air Makeup Unit (AMU) unit is used to supply air to replace the air being exhausted. If the AMU is designed to force more air into the booth than is exhausted…the booth is said to have “positive” air pressure. In this case, the booth has more air than outside the booth and when a door is opened, dirt and debris is pushed away from the booth. THINK STANDING IN FRONT OF A FAN. Continue reading PAINT BOOTH AIR FLOW: HOW IT WORKS

Do I Need Paint Booth MakeUp Air? What the heck is it?

Since we have announced the arrival of the Sure-Cure AMU to the market, we have been getting a lot of questions from customers about what an Air Makeup Unit does, why it is needed and how it works. Here are the simple answers to all of those questions. We’ll try not to make it too complicated, because it’s really simple…. It provides lots of air to the paint booth.

Now, why would anyone need all that extra air? Well, it’s not really ‘extra’ air, it’s replacement – or makeup – air for air that has been used and expelled out of the booth. Booth exhaust systems use up large volumes of air from the space that it is installed. If this air is not replaced at the same rate that it is expelled, the booth, or the building, will experience negative pressure (the air pressure outside the building is greater than the air pressure inside the building).

Why is negative pressure bad? At the risk of sounding like a bunch of engineers, some indicators of negative pressure include the suction pressure that makes booth doors difficult to open, exhaust fans that don’t work properly, drafts around doors and windows that cause a poor paint job and poor indoor air quality.

What does this have to do with your painting? Pressure problems make it difficult to paint in a booth and achieve proper coating and curing. When you are able to control the booth pressure and temperature, you are able to effectively remove particulates from the air that can negatively affect the quality of your finish. These problems are more pronounced during the cold season when windows are kept closed, reducing the natural pressure-balancing effect.

When you have an air make-up system, like the Sure-Cure AMU, the unit replaces the air that is expelled by a building’s exhaust system, maintaining the proper balance between inside and outside air pressures.

Some Cool Things About Air Makeup Units:

Replacement air can be heated in the winter months or to improve curing time. You can choose to not heat the replacement air in warmer months.
Cure your paint job in under an hour, increasing your daily productivity by up to 10X
Greatly reduce infiltration of cold outdoor air and drafts through opened booth doors
Encourage proper operation of booth exhaust systems
Improve the booth’s air quality
Eliminate suction pressure at doors
Decrease load on existing HVAC system
Lower energy costs by as much as 35%
Maintain a more comfortable and productive working environment

There are many individual benefits and features that differentiate AMU models and makes. It’s in our Sure-Cure air makeup unit features that make our unit safer and easier to operate. Now that you know why you need an AMU, check out all the benefits of having our AMU.

Want to see the video that launched it all? See the Sure-Cure AMU, in action, from all angles in just 55 seconds!

Heated Paint Booth: To Add Heat or Not Add Heat, That is The Question

It may seem like there is a lot to consider when you buy a paint booth. It’s easy to get in the “let’s just get going and figure it out later” attitude. Selecting the right type of paint booth and developing a well laid out floor plan will save you thousands in the future. The main thing that folks don’t consider is if they need a heated paint booth to their booth in the future. Right now, they may not need heat because their business only uses it every couple days. But as the business grows and more business coming than you can handle…. you may want to add heat and make your booth work even harder for you. If you buy a Cross Flow, you won’t be able to add heat later. But our popular Side-Down Draft or Semi-Down Draft can be heated at any time… as long you as you consider a few things first to make your life easier later. Continue reading Heated Paint Booth: To Add Heat or Not Add Heat, That is The Question

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Tag: AMU