The airflow pattern is the single biggest design decision in a spray booth. It decides how overspray leaves the work, how clean the finish is, what the booth needs under it, and much of the price. There are four main patterns.
Cross draft
Air enters through filtered doors or an end wall, travels horizontally along the length of the booth, and leaves through paint arrestor filters in the back wall. It is the simplest layout and needs no pit or raised floor.
- Good for: primers, industrial enamels, steelwork, fabrications and machinery where a commercial finish is enough
- Watch for: overspray is carried along the work towards the back wall, so items at the front can collect dry spray from items behind them
Our TS 1 is a cross-draft extraction booth.
Semi-downdraft
Filtered air enters through the front part of the ceiling and is extracted through the back wall. The air moves down and back over the work. It gives a cleaner finish than cross draft without the cost of a floor pit, and suits workshops that cannot dig.
Full downdraft
Air enters through a filtered ceiling over the whole booth and leaves through floor grids, either into a pit or into a raised base. Overspray is pulled straight down, away from the surface being painted, and the painter breathes cleaner air. It gives the best finish and is the standard choice for quality-critical work and vehicles.
- Good for: topcoats, clear coats, OEM and customer-facing finishes
- Needs: a raised base with ramps or a concrete pit, and usually separate intake and extraction fans
Our TS 2 and TS 3 are downdraft booths.
Downdraft with side extraction
On very large booths, air comes down from a filtered ceiling and is extracted through low-level filters along the side walls. It keeps most of the finish benefit of full downdraft without a pit under a 15 to 26 m booth, which matters for heavy machines and existing factory floors. Our TS 6 booths can be built with this layout.
Which one should you choose?
| Primers and enamels on steelwork | Cross draft |
|---|---|
| Better finish, no pit possible | Semi-downdraft |
| Topcoats and quality-critical finishes | Full downdraft |
| Trucks, buses and mining machines | Downdraft with side extraction |
Not sure? Tell us what you paint and what finish your customers expect, and we will recommend a layout. Request a quote.