Spray Booths

Design

SPRAY BOOTH WITH UL APPROVAL

Q. I have a spray booth, but don't know who manufactured it. The booth looks very similar to the Spray Shield Model and is semi down draft. The Spray Shield Model shows that the ceiling slopes 45 degree from each corner of the roof, whereas in our spray booth the walls and ceiling are at right angles to each other. We need to be able to prove that the booth has UL approval, but in the absence of vendor literature how can we determine this?

A. I referred this question to a friend of mine, Rich Thelen, General Manager of Technology for JBI Booths, and this is his response:

There seem to be two issues:

1. The 45 degree "hips" in the sidewall affect only the lighting in the booth. At JBI we add lights in the hips and get a better projection of light onto the painted surface. You can also get good lighting by using square corners and using good placement of lights in the ceiling and sidewalls.

2. If a booth is UL approved, it will be prominently labeled. Look at the location of the manufacturer's nameplate. If the manufacturer uses UL approved devices, each device will have a UL label prominently displayed. Typically, in the paint booth industry, "UL Approved" means lights, fans, control devices and control panels, but not the entire booth. UL is currently working on a UL category for paint booths, but at the time of this writing it is not yet complete. The only manufacturer in the new category is JBI.

ETL has issued labels for paint booths in the past and there are some manufacturers that have submitted to them. We have chosen to work with UL because UL seems to be more readily accepted nationwide.

Rich Thelen can be contacted at: JBI Booths, 715-597-3168, or 800-848-8738 x191 -  rthelen@jbibooths.com - www.jbibooths.com

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