How a Portable Industrial Clean Air Enclosure Comes to Life
Clean air is a major consideration for industrial facilities that are home to painting, sanding and coating, since they can involve some of the most hazardous air pollutants in manufacturing. Any work that involves hexavalent chromium, isocyanates and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) requires meeting some of the most stringent OSHA, EPA and NESHAP industrial air quality standards.
So when clean air stakeholders learn of Duroair’s portable paint booths and portable clean rooms, there are questions. Environmental health and safety officers and facility permit officers ask how these unvented retractable solutions can be compliant. Facility managers want to know how a compliant enclosure can be used throughout their operation and installed over a few days.
The answers are revealed by showing how a retractable paint booth or mobile clean room comes to life in a facility. The answers also reveal how these systems are good for your bottom line, solving numerous issues and alleviating common manufacturing pain points— whether an operation involves giant workpieces like jet engines and turbines or the tiniest avionics circuitry that requires an ISO clean room.
Portable Clean Rooms and Paint Booths are a Big Shift in Clean Air
A Duroair enclosure expands and retracts and can be stored at less than 20 percent of its functional space, allowing for maximum utilization of existing floor space. You can use it throughout your facility, which means the ability to bring clean air to large workpieces and cellular manufacturing cells has become a competitive advantage. Duroair customers have demonstrated more than a dozen ways in which flexibility of these retractable paint booths and mobile clean rooms solve a wide variety of challenges and issues.
For many, it eliminates the need to move the workpiece for painting or coating. One global energy company was shutting down seven other operations on the floor every time it moved a 30-foot wide electric turbine. But moving even small workpieces to specialty areas for a specific task can slow work in progress. The retractable solutions help optimize cellular manufacturing operations and reduce downtime.
The flexibility of the enclosure has allowed manufacturers and military bases to add finishing capabilities and avoid outsourcing, especially if they did not need a solution full time.
Ease of Assembly and Setup Help Drive Flexibility, Facility Efficiency
The retractable enclosures have three primary components – a steel frame, a fire-rated PVC vinyl cover and a unit that contains an engineered air filtration system. A typical Duroair portable paint booth solution can be assembled by three people in one to five days, depending on the size (watch a quick summary). Other larger solutions may take longer to assemble.
The vinyl is manufactured for long-lasting durability. The skirt is made of heavier vinyl to create a negative pressure vacuum seal, keeping overspray in and dust and dirt out of a portable paint booth. In some cases, the goal is to keep outside air from getting into the enclosure. For example, a Duroair softwall cleanroom can be built for negative or positive pressure.
Ability to Change Filters For Different Operations Also Boosts Value
Duroair has a family of industrial air filtration systems, ranging from its patented 6-stage DuroPure™ to 4-, 3- and 2-stage systems and clean rooms for different needs. In the 6-stage system, the first three stages capture particulates, including hexavalent chromium and particulate isocyanates. The next three stages include two layers of activated charcoal to adsorb odors, and a layer of ultraviolet light to create photocatalytic oxidation (PCO). The application of UV light or PCO removes Volatile Organic Compounds from the air by breaking apart the molecules, which allows the clean air to be recirculated back into the shop space.
The multi-layer filtration places less expensive filters in front of more expensive, technically-advanced filters to protect them and extend filter life. The third stage filter can be changed to accommodate Merv15, HEPA, NESHAP 319 standards, depending upon needs. This provides the manufacturer with the flexibility to do different operations in the enclosure. Surface preparation and painting can be undertaken in the same enclosure. You can sand a large workpiece, change the filter, and paint it without having to move it.
The unvented recirculating solution does not require ducting or make-up air, which means:
- Smaller capital investment
- Faster commission
- More efficient to operate
Airflow Technology Produces Higher Quality Work and a Safer Environment
At the heart of Duroair’s modular clean air solutions is the patented Taper Draft Airflow Technology. It goes above and beyond traditional cross drafts by creating indoor environments that are so clean, they exceed OSHA requirements
The exhaust fans pull the overspray through the filters to create a cleaner finish and a safer work environment. The system produces a tapered airflow that creates an envelope around the workpiece. Reduced airflow around the ceiling, walls or floor of the enclosure leads to optimal capture of overspray while reducing dust or dirt transfer. The airflow can be modified to improve dry times.
The system allows you to match the airflow to produce a perfect finish, the highest quality and compliance. The enclosure is a compliant coating facility with patented technology improving your dry times, controlling overspray and filtering 99 percent of airborne particulates.
Portable Clean Rooms and Portable Paint Booths are Good for Business
Interested in how Duroair can help you bring a mobile clean room or retractable paint booth to life in your facility while saving you time and money? To learn how a customized, Duroair clean air solution can help you reduce your operational costs and increase efficiency, schedule a free consultation with one of our clean air experts.
