Your choice of industrial paint booth supplier will have far-reaching impacts on how your business operates. Choosing the right paint booths that can meet business needs while complying to legislation and approved codes of conduct needs to be done. So, what are the important aspects to finding the right industrial paint booth supplier for your business?
Get the Right Team
Having the right people analyse then make the decision on what paint booth is needed is important. This is a big buy and getting the wrong one is unthinkable. As a rule, you need a team consisting of people that are going to use the booth day in day out, and somebody who knows what codes of conduct the booth needs to meet.
To this end, it is good to approach suppliers armed with the regulations. Good suppliers will be able to point with pride that their products meet the approved codes and regulations and be able to reel this off without having to check.
You can download European guidelines here.
Size Is Important
It is critical that you get the right size paint booth. You need to factor in airflow. Ensure that you have at least a 65cm or 2ft gap above the height of the largest object you are going to spray, and 163cm or 5ft of space for both the width and depth.
Factor in other aspects such as pallet/cart dimensions if you are going to spray multiple objects. If so, you’ll need to leave a 100cm or 3ft gap between each object.
For larger objects such as aircraft, you’ll need to add 325cms or 10 feet gap at all sides as a minimum. Again, scaffolding and lifting equipment should also be factored in.
Suppliers
Good paint booth suppliers will be able to cater to your needs. An initial check will tell you if the supplier caters to your industry and you should be able to weed out the unsuitable ones quickly. Once you have a list make your approach.
Clarify in the first instance:
- Do the booths meet regulations and codes of practice?
- Do they cater to your industry?
- Are the booths workable and can you demo one, see one, ask questions?
- Are they designed by fully qualified engineers and do they have engineers on their staff?
- Lead time, make sure this is workable for your business
- Do they offer bespoke paint booths to fit in with your business? This can be fantastic if they do and you know you will get exactly what you want
- Price
- Environmental factors such as low energy consumption and the industrial processes used to make it
Once you make a list of questions, you will probably find you have more questions to ask. This list is a good place to start.
Talk to Your Local Authority
It is a good idea to consult local authorities if you have not done so already. They tend to like being included in the process from day one and tend to be more accommodating and amenable if they are. Discovering you as it were tends to lead to inflexibility on their initial conclusions and findings.
This is especially important if you are trying to secure licensing. Even if you are an established operator getting a refit, bringing them onboard could solve a range of headaches in the future.
