Spray guns had been around for a century – then 3M brought its perspective
The first application of what we would today call spray painting dates back more than 100 years, when the Southern Pacific Railway first used a “spray-air painting method.”
The tools used in auto shops to apply paint today are descendants of this technology. Even after 100 years, tools and paints are evolving to enable performance that was previously unattainable, and 3M is working to make painting smarter. 3M™ Paint Application Solutions products have helped streamline workflows in the body shop. The paint booth can be a bottleneck for shops, and 3M is working to solve this problem with products that enable greater efficiency through faster setup, changeover and cleanup. With increased efficiency, painters can spend their time where it matters most.
Not long ago, painters couldn’t tilt their spray guns much more than 45 degrees – let alone upside down – or the paint would spill out of the open cups/ports. With the invention of the 3M Paint Preparation System (PPS™), painters could go wherever their work took them with the collapsible, enclosed liner system. This value continues with the improvements of the 3M™ PPS™ Series 2.0 Spray Cup System.
Another nuisance in the paint shop – the clean-up process. It used to take almost as long to clean a spray gun and its accessories as it did to get a job done. Now it takes a fraction of the time and requires only a few ounces of cleaning solvent. The 3M™ Performance Spray Gun helps streamline this clean-up process with its easily removable and cleanable spray heads. In addition, thanks to its stainless steel reinforced composite materials, the 3M Spray Gun weighs about half as much as traditional metal guns, reducing operator fatigue.
The 3M™ Performance Spray Gun, launched in 2020, was developed and tested over several years in laboratories and body shops around the world. Many of its elements come from the product portfolio of Accuspray™, a company the company acquired in 2007 that manufactured a spray gun for primer. Engineers at 3M saw the potential to develop a modular product that could handle tasks from primer to topcoat using different materials and nozzle sizes. They filled a board with opportunities for improvement, created prototypes and tested these concepts in the field.
One of the biggest benefits of introducing the 3M™ Performance Spray Gun was that it helped customers use paint better. “About three or four months after launch, customers started coming back to us and saying they were using less paint,” said Corey Munn, 3M Global Segment Director. “They usually mix 12 ounces to get a job done, but now they were left with three or four. That really helped us understand that we were solving a much bigger problem than we thought. Painters and shops realized they could get paint on the panel faster, with less waste and overspray.”
Several features of the system contribute to this advantage. First, its efficient high volume/low pressure (HVLP) design reduces “overspray,” the technical term for paint that goes into the air or onto the wall rather than onto the workpiece. This not only improves material efficiency, but also helps shops comply with updated U.S. Clean Air Act standards.
Users can also use embossed graduations to mix colors directly in the gun’s cup, rather than in a separate mixing container, so there is no waste when transferring from one cup to another. The cup features a disposable inner bag and built-in filter, both of which save paint and clean-up time compared to standard designs. Combined with the built-in high transfer efficiency of the 3M™ Performance Spray Gun, this results in a remarkable impact on coating quality.
Consumption.
The design of the system is also critical. The 3M design uses interchangeable nozzles that direct the paint from the cup to the nozzle without it entering the body of the spray gun itself. Injection molding the spray gun body allows optimal air channels to be created for HVLP operation. This can help customers run their spray guns at lower air inlet pressures and reduce the workload on their compressors. This manufacturing process can offer advantages in this regard over metal designs, which are typically forged or cast and then machined – just like a hundred years ago.
The lesson from 3M Paint Application Solutions is that there is always room for improvement. And the design team isn’t done yet. “Paint spray guns will continue to evolve as they have for the last 100 years, and there are exciting technologies that can be incorporated into these tools,” said Ryan Erickson, product developer at 3M. “We always believe there is still room to help customers, and we are already working on a next generation that will provide more benefits and efficiency based on their feedback.”
