Dürr EcoPaintJet

In carpentry, shipyards, electronics production and many other industries, the surfaces of products and components are coated to protect them or add color. Until now, if the coating had to be applied with great sharpness of the contours, it required a lot of effort: in fact, the surfaces had to either be masked manually or wrapped in foil. It also generated a lot of waste, due to the adhesive tape and the loss of paint by the mist. This is now a thing of the past thanks to Dürr's new mist-free application kit. The Eco PaintJet is already successfully used in the series production of automobiles. Since 2019, this new Dürr technology has made it possible to paint car roofs in contrasting colors without masking.

More possibilities for design

The Eco PaintJet applicator provides efficient, precise, mist-free coating, giving businesses more options in product design and freight transportation. Instead of using adhesive film, it is possible to protect decorative surfaces for transport by applying a targeted spray film. This can simply be removed once transport has been completed. Technology also offers new possibilities in terms of product functionality and design. The precise coating method allows, for example, to apply a waterproof coating on the outside to the window frames and to opt for a decorative or other color application on the inside. It is possible to easily achieve decorative effects on furniture fronts.

Absence of atomized air, therefore absence of mist

The main element of the mistless application kit is the paint supply, combined with the cleaning and pre-painting process. The Eco PaintJet achieves this with the help of three valves. At the heart of the applicator itself is a nozzle plate that produces several dozen parallel sprays of paint depending on the design. They can be turned on or off at any time to start or interrupt the coating process. Unlike paint processes using spray guns or high-speed rotary sprayers, this process does not require atomized air. So there is no mist that needs to be filtered out with the paint booth air.

There is another big difference compared to common sprayers: it is possible to adjust the width of the paint jet by means of the application angle of the applicator. The paint jet can thus have a width of 30 to 50 mm. It is also possible to create jets of smaller width by adapting the nozzle plate. The desired coating thickness is controlled by the speed of the applicator and the solids content of the paint.

All the benefits in one app

Paint-saving application techniques are especially important for large surfaces. Even with airless guns or high-speed rotary sprayers, up to a quarter of the material is wasted. The recovery of this paint is long and tedious. It does not work with all types of paint. The so-called "pouring" technique, which consists of collecting the excess paint in vats, avoids mist, but does not allow the color to change quickly. Other surface design options, such as the application of foils or decorative strips, often involve a lot of manual effort.

The new Dürr technology eliminates all the disadvantages of individual methods and makes the painting process faster, more profitable and more environmentally friendly for all sectors of industry.