Apparatus and process for extracting powder from a stream of powder laden air drawn from a manual powder spray booth in a first embodiment, with a cyclone recovery system, typically containing two cyclone separators for separating the powder from the air. The cyclone separators have a breakaway design to facilitate cleaning. The resulting cyclone cleaned air is drawn through a prefilter section by a fan section having serially stacked fans. The prefilter section further separates powder from the cyclone cleaned air. The resulting prefilter cleaned air is next filtered in a final filter section and exhausted to the air surrounding the cyclone recovery system. The invention also relates to an improved cyclone separator which incorporates a perforated thimble between the downwardly and upwardly moving vortexes in the cyclone separator to reduce the pressure drop across the cyclone separator. In a second embodiment, a stream of powder laden air is drawn from an automatic powder spray booth with a cyclone recovery system typically incorporating horizontally disposed cyclone separators, each with a perforated thimble, a filter module with cartridge filters, a fan module, and a final filter.
A modular powder recovery apparatus includes a base unit, one or more cartridge filters, and a wrapper that at least partially encloses the cartridge filters. The wrapper is designed to allow additional wrappers to be vertically stacked thereon to increase the overall height of the wrapper, thus permitting additional filter capacity without changing the base unit. A modular cartridge assembly is provided to facilitate color change operations. A fan cone is provided in the base unit to permit fan wheel size changes without requiring structural modifications to the base unit housing.
A modular powder recovery apparatus includes a base unit, one or more cartridge filters, and a wrapper that at least partially encloses the cartridge filters. The wrapper is designed to allow additional wrappers to be vertically stacked thereon to increase the overall height of the wrapper, thus permitting additional filter capacity without changing the base unit. A modular cartridge assembly is provided to facilitate color change operations. A fan cone is provided in the base unit to permit fan wheel size changes without requiring structural modifications to the base unit housing.
A modular powder recovery apparatus includes a base unit, one or more cartridge filters, and a wrapper that at least partially encloses the cartridge filters. The wrapper is designed to allow additional wrappers to be vertically stacked thereon to increase the overall height of the wrapper, thus permitting additional filter capacity without changing the base unit. The base unit is modular in design so that the size of the apparatus may be increased with a minimum of cost and waste.
A quick color change system for powder coating spray systems includes a powder pump having a powder inlet and a powder outlet, and a powder flow path extending straight from the powder inlet to the powder outlet on a single longitudinal axis, a pump frame on which the powder pump is mounted, and a carriage on which the pump frame is mounted, wherein the pump frame may be moved linearly along the carriage. The pump may be used with separate flow air and atomizing air inlets.
Powder overspray that is extracted from a spray booth is recovered back to a powder supply that is used to supply powder to the spray guns inside the spray booth. The powder overspray extracted from the booth is separated from the high flow air stream by a separator such as a cyclone separator. The powder falls into a transfer pan and a vacuum is used to convey the powder from the transfer pan to a vacuum receiver. The powder is then discharged to the feed hopper in the feed center. The use of a vacuum to convey powder from the cyclone to the feed center in effect permits substantially all of the powder overspray to be recovered from the spray booth directly to the feed hopper with minimal dwell or residence time within the cyclone or vacuum receiver subsystems during a spraying operation. The receiver can be rotated for easy cleaning, and the vacuum line cleaned by one or more cleaning elements drawn through the vacuum line.
