About Downdraft Booths

Downdraft paint booths are used extensively in the automotive collision repair and restoration field. They provide a sealed environment for painting and curing that helps eliminate airborne contaminants from paint jobs. Curing the paint job in the paint booth greatly reduces the amount of time required for the paint job to dry, increasing repair turnaround.

Ventilation

A downdraft paint booth draws air from the top of the paint booth and exhausts the paint- and dust- contaminated air through a hole in the floor of the paint booth. There are two filters for the incoming and outgoing air. The clean air filter in the ceiling of the spray booth requires changing once a year. The contaminated air filter, located in the floor of the paint booth, must be changed every two to four weeks, depending on usage.

Curing Process

One of the biggest advantages of the downdraft paint booth is that it can speed up the curing process of a painted vehicle by "baking" the car in a heated environment. The maximum temperature for this process is approximately 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but is capable of being controlled through a panel on the outside of the spray booth. The curing speed, while accelerated, is determined by the material painted and the relative humidity in the shop.

Environmental Considerations

Downdraft spray booths serve a valuable environmental function in the collision restoration industry. The filtering and curing systems of the downdraft spray booth allow the system to catch minute particles of paint and other solvents that would otherwise enter the atmosphere and the ecosystem surrounding the paint shop. The cleansing effect is doubled by the use of water-based paint, which does not use the same volatile compounds that lacquer paint uses.

Comparison to Cross Draft Paint Booths

The difference between downdraft spray booths and cross draft paint booths is in the way the air flows in the paint booth. They both provide benefits, but downdraft paint booths require that a pit be dug in the floor of the shop to accommodate the system plumbing. In a cross draft paint booth, the air enters from the front of the spray booth and exits the back of the booth.