Spray Gun Finishing Equipment – What Spray Gun is Best For Your Application?

Spray gun painting can be used for both manufacturing processes as well as many household projects. There are two different types of air gun spraying: the manual operation method and the automatic process. In the manual method the air gun sprayer is hand held and moved back and forth over the surface, each stroke overlapping the last to ensure a continuous coat. In the automatic process the gun head is attached to a mounting block and delivers a stream of paint from that position.

There are a few different types of spray guns to use depending on your needs:

HVLP Spray Guns: HVLP which stands for high volume low pressure are similar to a conventional spray gun using a compressor to supply the air. The spray gun itself requires low pressure (LP) and a higher volume (HV) of air is used to aerosolize and propel the paint at a lower air pressure. HVLP Spray Gun Systems are most commonly used in the automotive, marine, architectural coating, furniture finishing, and cosmetic industry.

LVLP Spray Guns: LVLP which stands for low volume low pressure uses a lower volume of air to atomize the paint at the cap. These spray guns, like HVLP systems, operate at low pressure but also have a low volume of paint coating. Unlike HVLP guns LVLP guns can be used with a smaller compressor. These spray gun systems are great for small shops, woodworkers, or smaller projects in general.

Electrostatic Spray Painting: Electrostatic painting is when an electrically charged powder is sprayed on a surface that is charged with the opposite electrical charge. The whole is then baked to properly attach paint. It’s much more durable than liquid paint and it’s an environmentally friendly process because there are no solvents to evaporate into the air or go down the drain. Electrostatic painting can be used on most plastics and any kind of metals. This type of painting is commonly used to paint car bodies, bicycles, elevators, and some office equipment.

Airless Spray Guns: Airless Spray Guns are connected to a high pressure pump to atomize the coating using different tip sizes to reach desired atomization and spray pattern size. Airless spray gun coatings penetrate better into pits and crevices, and have a thick wet coating which reduces the number of applications. These systems are commonly used by contract painters to paint heavy duty industrial, chemical, and marine coatings and linings.

Air Assisted Airless Spray Guns: Air Assisted Airless Spray Guns are very similar to the airless gun in that high fluid pressures force the coating through a small orifice in the spray gun cap. The gun differs from the airless spray gun in that the fluid pressures are lower. These spray guns provide high transfer rate and increase application speed and is best used with flat line applications. These spray guns are commonly found in factory finish shops.