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How to Properly Dispose of Paint Booth Exhaust Filters to Protect the Environment

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For collision repair centers and industrial manufacturers who own a paint booth, one of the easiest ways to protect the environment is to properly dispose of paint booth exhaust filters.

Since most paint that is sprayed contains hazardous compounds and is potentially flammable, extra care must be taken when it is time to dispose of your paint booth filters. At this time, it is not possible to recycle paint booth filters. Proper paint booth filter disposal not only ensures your business is following the law, but it is also what is best for the environment.

Here are five steps for proper paint booth filter disposal:

1. Determine If Your Used Paint Booth Filters Are Hazardous

Before disposing of your paint booth exhaust filters as general waste, you need to verify your filters have not been exposed to any of the hazardous compounds that are frequently found in paint. You must perform a Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) laboratory test to determine if the paint you sprayed contains specific compounds. Your filters are considered hazardous if a certain amount of any of the following compounds are present in your filters:

      • Arsenic
      • Barium
      • Cadmium
      • Chromium
      • Lead
      • Mercury
      • Selenium
      • Silver

Paint booth intake filters are designed to remove dust and other small airborne particles to supply a contaminant-free environment for painting. As long as the intake filters have not come in contact with paint, they are not hazardous. This means the intake filters can be disposed of in your normal trash.

2. Properly Dispose of Hazardous Paint Booth Exhaust Filters

If your paint booth exhaust filters are deemed hazardous, they should not be disposed of as standard waste. Instead, they must be properly stored and sent to a hazardous waste disposal facility. Store them in a non-leaking container marked with the words “hazardous waste” and a description of the waste, such as “waste paint booth filters.” Then, use a licensed hazardous waste transporter to ship the container to a hazardous waste disposal facility.

Before disposing of hazardous paint booth exhaust filters, you should always let them dry. Allowing your paint booth exhaust filters to dry typically eliminates the chance of ignitability. It is safest to subject the filters to the same curing process you use for painted products to accelerate drying of the filters and ensure they are completely dry before disposal.

 

Loaded Filters

3. Contact Trash Collector Before Disposing of Non-Hazardous Paint Booth Filters

Even if your paint booth exhaust filters are not deemed hazardous waste, you should notify your trash company that you are disposing of the filters as standard waste. Your trash collector may ask you to provide proof that no hazardous compounds are present in the filters. Make sure to retain documentation of the safety data sheets (SDS) of the materials you are spraying, lab test results and any other pertinent information your state recommends you keep on file.

4. Do Not Spray Gun Cleaners Into Paint Booth Exhaust Filters

Many spray gun and wand cleaners contain solvents that are classified as F-listed hazardous waste, including methylene chloride, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and toluene. This is indicated on the SDS of the solvent as F001, F002, F004 or F005.

Spraying solvents into the exhaust filters during gun cleaning can cause your filters to be considered hazardous waste. When cleaning your spray gun, make sure to keep solvents away from the paint booth filters. It is best to spray solvents into closable hazardous waste collection containers or use a gun washing system.

5. Test Filters Whenever You Make a Change to Your Paint Process

Determining whether your paint booth exhaust filters are hazardous waste can be an ongoing process, depending on how often you introduce new paint into your operation. Testing is required whenever parts of your painting process change.

Any time you add a new paint, you need to evaluate the paint to see if it contains hazardous compounds. Since testing can take some time, you should give yourself a buffer before you intend to spray the paint.

Regulations regarding paint booth filter disposal vary from state to state and sometimes even from county to county; your local authorities can tell you the requirements for your area. Since you cannot recycle paint booth filters, considering them hazardous waste and coordinating with a hazardous waste disposal company to dispose of them properly is the safest thing for the environment.

 

Source: Global Finishing Solutions

Learn More about Global Finishing Solutions Spray Booths

Air Power wins Graco 2020 Top 20 Distributor Award

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Graco Top 20 Distributor Award

 

Graco’s Top 20 Program was established in 2010 to define the top sales performing distributors in North America. Every year since, the HPCF sales group has recognized the Top 20 distributors for their Protective Coatings Equipment (PCE). Air Power Manufacturing Solutions has been named one of Graco’s Top 20 Distributors in North America.

Being a Top 20 Distributor is a significant achievement. Although based on total sales, distributors don’t get to that level of success without hard work and strategic investment in their companies. Many different things go into building a successful Graco distributorship, but there is one common characteristic shared by all of Graco’s top-performing distributors—they are customer-focused.

 

More About: Graco

Filter Conversion to Eliminate Overspray

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Overspray in industrial finishing applications is one of the most common causes of parts being rejected by quality control inspections. This can result in constant costly reworks and low-quality finish on parts. In this case study, Air Power proposes a solution that completely eliminates overspray for this customer.

Customer

Manufacturer of plumbing and water-related fittings and valves

Challenge

This customer was experiencing paint buildup on their booth due to overspray. This was caused by inefficient airflow through the booth. This customer was using an old baffle style booth that uses offset layers of metal to catch the initial overspray and then redirects the overspray into the second layer of filters. As a second layer of filtration, the customer used Styrofoam baffle filters that allowed a high volume of bypass of a mixture of tacky and dry overspray. This type of baffle filter works better with wet paint overspray.

Without proper airflow collecting the overspray in the booth, this customer experienced a higher number of rejected parts, a lower quality finish on products, and paint buildup on their spray booth and surrounding areas.

Overspray build up

Overspray Build-up inside Booth

Air Power Solution

 

Air Power proposed a solution that updated the filtration system to a more efficient style. This solution included completely removing the metal vertical baffles that were the first stage of filtration. The second stage Styrofoam baffle filters were then removed and the 20×20 grid was scraped clean of all the overspray buildup.  Then we installed Kem-Wove P3 20×20 panel filters in the second stage, installed snapper bars on the front of the filter wall, and added RP 3252 paper/poly blankets (RTT Engineered Solutions / Col-Met) as the first stage of filtration to improve overspray capture and airflow.

Baffle Style Filter Wall

Baffle Style Filter Wall

Filter Install

Results

 

This customer was amazed by the change in airflow and overspray capture in their spray booth. This new filtration system collected all the overspray in the booth and allowed nothing to bypass for the first time. These changes improved the painting conditions for operators in the booth, allowing for a higher quality finish on products. This customer is currently in the testing stage with this system to determine the length of life for one layer of filtration to ensure this system is cost-efficient and establish best practices for their finishing operation.

 

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Filter Conversion to Eliminate Overspray

 

 

Ransburg Paint Resistance Tester with CFT

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Air Power Specialists Jeff Tussey and Carlisle Representative Shawn McManus discuss the importance of choosing the right paint for your process by testing the paint resistance. In this video, we show you how the Ransburg Paint Tester can eliminate the guesswork when choosing paint for your application process. Contact Air Power to get the Ransburg Paint Tester for your facility.

 

Learn more about Carlisle Fluid Technologies

 

Ransburg Paint Tester

Ransburg Paint Tester

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More about the Ransburg Paint Tester

 

How to Set Up the Mark II Molded Plastic Manometer with Dwyer

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The Molded Plastic Manometer, Series Mark II, is quick and simple to use. In this video, we show how to set up the Mark II straight out of the box. Series MARK II Molded Manometers are of the inclined and inclined-vertical types. The curved inclined-vertical tube of the Model 25 gage provides higher ranges with more easily read increments at low readings. Dwyer’s Model 25 Manometer is excellent for general purpose work. The Model 40 Manometer with an inclined gage provides linear calibration and excellent resolution throughout its range. Their Model 40 manometer is recommended for air velocity and air filter gage applications.
Contact Your Air Power Account Manager to get a manometer that fits your needs today!

The Megger: How Well are Your Parts Grounded?

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Profitability and first-pass transfer efficiency are vital to any finishing operation. Ground is critical and there is a huge difference between thinking you have a good ground and knowing it. Why risk your profits to bad ground when it is simple to measure where you are at right now? Time to introduce THE MEGGER and exactly what it tells us about ground.

 

Check out some of our other videos about Electrostatic Finishing!

Dynorbital Extreme Combo Packs

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Dynabrade, the premier random orbital solution provider, proudly introduces our most refined random orbital sander to date. The Dynorbital® Extreme boasts the greatest power and most consistent speed of any palm-style orbital sander. Power and speed combine to quickly and reliably produce the desired finish, while ergonomic features keep operators safe and comfortable throughout their day. Symmetrical design allows left or right-handed operators to work comfortably, while the compact size of the Dynorbital® Extreme fits naturally in most operator’s hands. American-made from the highest grade materials for long-life and high durability.

 

Dynorbital Extreme Combo Packs

 

Learn More about Dynabrade Abrasives

Source: dynabrade.com

Polyester Filters for Paint, Powder Coating and HVAC

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Polyester Filters for Paint, Powder Coating and HVAC

 

Polyester filters offer exceptional intake and exhaust filtration in paint booths, powder coating booths, sanding booths, AMU air filtration as well as HVAC applications. Join Air Power in a walk through our key polyester filter products and learn which media is the best for your unique application.

Get the Perfect Ratio with GEMS 2K

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When it comes to mixing paint, accuracy is the key to achieving a high-quality finish. In this case study, we discuss a 2K solution that helped this customer perfect their process and save tons in production costs.

Customer

 

Manufacturer of roadside transformers.

 

Challenge

 

This company has a small parts booth for primer and topcoats. The operator had to manually mix two types of epoxy and one urethane. Each day he had to spray all three colors from the same hot pot system. The color change process was a major problem as the different parts to be sprayed were not batched. This caused a lot of waste of paint and solvent. The other concern was being off ratio and parts not curing properly. This was a major cost to the company. They also had a large booth that sprayed the finished transformer. They had to utilize the same paints and this process had the same problems. If the large transformer was off ratio, they had to sand the paint off and repeat the entire process. This proved to be a very expensive problem.

 

Air Power Solution

 

Air Power proposed to install a Carlisle GEMS 2K mix system for each color. We also put in a pump system to pump and circulate all paints to the mix machines. The catalyst was dispensed to the machines from 5-gallon pressure tanks. The 55-gallon drums of paint each had an agitator in them to keep paint in suspension to maintain viscosity. By having a machine for each color there was no color change or off ratio problems.

 

Results

 

The Air Power Solution eliminated the need to hot pot in tanks. Since each color is mixed on demand; this system provided a major labor savings. There is no paint waste and the newly established process saves about 2 to 3 hours per shift as compared to manually formulating and mixing paint. The solvent usage was greatly reduced as there was not a tank to clean each color change. This solution has been able to speed up production on all three shifts. Our technical group and installers were able to put the system in place without impeding the customer’s production runs.

 

GEMS 2K Mix System

 

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Get the Perfect Ratio with GEMS 2K