Documentation Saves Time and Money in Spraying Applications

If you are in a production setting for spraying you need to have a record of important variables that effect the way you spray. The reasons for keeping a written record are a multitude but include helping to reduce finish quality differences, solve issues related to equipment malfunctioning, and ensure repeat-ability of your finish. Below we cover why a written record can make a great difference in each of the areas mentioned above.

1.  Reduce finish quality issues – If you do not have a record of important information including paint information (viscosity of the paint, amount of paint mixed), the environmental conditions when you sprayed (air temperature, humidity), and the spray gun set up when you sprayed (nozzle size, air cap utilized, gun type used, fluid pressure, atomizing pressure) it will be a long process to resolve an issue with finish quality. Sometimes finish quality issues are related to an external factor such as contaminant entering your finish either through your air supply or the external environment. However, if the variables that I mentioned to write down are not controlled for then those issues must first be explored before moving to the external factors or air supply issue. In the end this costs operator time when troubleshooting must happen and this costs both money and production.
2. Equipment malfunctioning – if a spray gun seems to be doing something different than it did before it could be due to the guns set up or the coating performing differently when sprayed. To be able to isolate the most likely cause of this it is easier when we can be sure that other variables have been controlled for such as the environment and the setup of the equipment. If we do not control equipment and the spray environment we have to then try to look back to discover the gun setup used as well as ensure the spray environment is the same in the current configuration.  Again this costs both in production and money.
3.  Repeat-ability of finish – This is by far the biggest benefit to having a written record of the coating your using, the temperature of the environment, humidity in the atmosphere, amount of paint used, solvent mixed in the paint as well as the equipment setup. By having all of this written you can ensure the same finish regardless of who the operator is, assuming they have proper spray gun technique. It allows an operator from guessing on settings and procedure for spraying which ensures a process that yields the same result.

If your hoping to reduce costs, improve production, and ensure repeat-ability of a finish write down the pertinent details so that you can be better assisted if equipment issues occur as well as receive a repeatable finish.