Air-Assisted Airless for Spraying Paint
Information on the suitability of AAA equipment for applying oil-based paint and waterborne latex paint. March 4, 2009
Question
Does anyone use a Kremlin pump to spray oil and latex paint?
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor R:
No. That's why they have airless pumps!
From contributor N:
Use airless for latex, or you will prematurely wear out your s/s fluid passages on your Kremlin pump and guns.
From contributor J:
These products typically require a pump with a pressure ratio of 20:1 or higher. The pump should have a large hydraulic to prevent shearing of some latex products. Using a Kremlin Airmix gun allows for lower fluid pressures as the atomizing air reduces the material lines or tails that are present in the pattern edges in airless spray if the pressure is not high enough.
From contributor Y:
We have systems at the shipyards spraying marine grade coatings with Airmix. We have Aerospace MFG's spraying jets with Airmix. I also have a customer that sprays latex house paint to pre-finish exterior siding with Airmix. I have several paint contractor type customers using Airmix systems to spray Ben Moore Impervo or other types of onsite coatings. The reason why they all use Airmix Vs airless is paint savings and atomization quality is dramatically improved. I think that in the wood industry the only real exposure to Airmix spraying is with a 10-14 pump. Kremlin makes a whole catalogue full of pumps to suite virtually every need. Call your local distributor and see what they recommend, they will do a demo for you I am sure.
From contributor R:
Water based or water reducible coatings are sprayed with Airmix application equipment all the time. Every five gallon metal pail manufactured in North America is finished with water based paints and applied by automatic Kremlin guns. I should know because I put them all in.
Many new cabinet coatings are water based and work very well with Airmix application equipment. Water based coatings are very Thixotropic, which means when the coating is worked, like with an agitator or in a circulation system, the viscosity is reduced. This means you can spray a heavier viscosity coating as it reduces the viscosity by inputting the energy into the coating. That being said, normal water reducible coating will have a in the pail viscosity of about 15 to 45 seconds on a #3 Zahn cup. Airmix is used at it have a very high transfer rate which means less mess in the booth, and a lower finishing cost.
Generally speaking, oil based paints are solvent based, and latex water reducible.
