Dürr Launches New EcoProBooth Paint Booth

With the new EcoProBooth, Dürr is opening up new perspectives for car manufacturers in the field of paint booth technology. With its modular design, separate production lines and the ability to spray both inside and outside the bodywork in the same booth, it offers a flexibility and scalability that can only be seen in small series production. The EcoProBooth for future-proof production is more than just that, the new booth concept also demonstrates Dürr's strong focus on the key issue of energy efficiency. The EcoProBooth paint booth is expected to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by around 40 per cent compared to current paint lines with dry separation systems, and even up to 75 per cent compared to many paint lines with wet scrubbing systems.

EcoProBooth booths can integrate multiple individual paint lines into one efficient and flexible coating system. For example, in the case of an Intermediate-Paint-Preparation (IPP) process, a 60-vehicle-per-hour IPP line (with eight stations for primer and six stations for clearcoat, which is traditionally done in two separate 30-vehicle-per-hour fixed lines) becomes five parallel EcoProBooth paint lines. Instead of five parallel EcoProBooth lines, each with two positions for all primer and clearcoat application, the 14 zones become 10 paint booths, each of which can be individually controlled and can be produced or stopped as required.

Fig. 1: In the future layout of the paint shop, two fixed paint lines become five parallel EcoProBooth paint lines.

Scalability and system efficiency

Different car bodies can be optimally assigned to different EcoProBooth paint booths, thus increasing efficiency. Loss of beat time due to different spraying ranges (e.g. metallic and solids) or different body types is a thing of the past. Production schedules are also no longer affected by the maximum coating range, as the EcoProBooth booth can paint all standard passenger car models from compacts to SUVs. In addition, the standardised dimensions and design of the EcoProBooth allow the booths to be converted and expanded directly without affecting other parts of the production.

Integrated design for improved usability

The paint robots use the paint technology best suited to the body to be painted and can paint both inside and outside the body in the same booth. the new universal atomiser of the EcoBell4 Pro Ux meets the highest standards of paint quality and ensures that only four paint robots are needed in each booth to handle all the painting tasks. The integration of all painting tasks into one booth eliminates the need for body transport processes between interior and exterior painting.

The uninterrupted operation of the paint booth is also made possible by the ‘service compartments’ located in the corners of the paint booth. These ‘service compartments’ have a continuous supply of fresh air and can be safely accessed without the need for respiratory protection to clean atomisers and tools or to carry out simple maintenance work during the painting process. At the same time, using the Dürr DXQ software, the cleaning intensity can be adjusted to the level of contamination of the individual components.

Fig. 2: The ‘service compartment’ with continuous fresh air supply is an important factor in the uninterrupted operation of the system.

Maximising air circulation rates and reducing energy consumption

The efficient modular design enabled Dürr to reduce the size of the paint booth. In the example mentioned above, the volumetric flow rate of the process air was reduced by approximately 20 per cent. The modular concept minimises energy consumption and reduces carbon emissions and operating costs.

The EcoProBooth paint spray booths have an ultra-high recirculation rate, which significantly reduces the energy consumption for the treatment of process air, with a ratio of recirculated air to fresh air of up to 95:5. This means that the process air uses only 5 per cent of the fresh air, which comes directly from the clean room without the need for any other air supply system. The spray booth also uses the latest generation of EcoDryScrubber (large module) for overspray mist separation. The exhaust air from the spray booth is separated from the overspray by the EcoDryScrubber, thus reducing energy consumption and costs. The latest version of the EcoDryScrubber uses only one filter in each module, which provides almost twice as much air purification per module as the previous version. The highly compact design of the filter modules allows for perfect integration into modular paint booths. Dürr reduces energy consumption by up to 40 per cent compared to conventional wet overspray paint mist separation systems and up to 75 per cent compared to paint lines with wet scrubbing systems.