Global Finishing Solutions is the biggest spray booth company you've never heard of.
Imported from the US by Peregrine Industries, its impressive booth designs were snapped up by RPM in Victoria for its two new super-efficient shops.
Did you know that the origins of the spray booth go back as far as 1888? Many different spray booth manufacturers from all over the world have come and gone in that time.
The heritage of GFS stretches further back than any other manufacturer of spray booth environments. The company is really the result of the evolution of the spray booth and the advancement of the most successful manufacturers in the industry.
You may recognise such brand names as DeVilbiss, Team Blowtherm, JBI and Binks, but you may not realise that all those brands were part of the creation of the company known today as GFS.
The story really starts with a man by the name of Dr Allen DeVilbiss. Back in 1888, he developed a device called the ‘atomiser’, which is really just a fancy name for a sprayer. Originally engineered for applications in the health care industry, it was quickly recognised that this device could be used to quickly and effectively apply paints and coatings.
At the time, painting was done with the slow and messy ‘brush and can’ method, and companies such as Ford and other large manufacturers were wasting large amounts of time during the painting process as a result. Once the atomiser was adapted for spraying paint, production rates increased dramatically.
Of course, this method of applying coatings resulted in the need for a safe, controlled environment in which to spray in order to protect the workers from harmful fumes, as well as to reduce the risk of fire and explosions. Thus, the spray booth was born.
DeVilbiss was one of the earliest makers of spray booths, followed quickly by others like Joe Binks, founder of Star Brass Works in 1911, which would eventually be known as Binks Spray Booths.
Driven by the adoption of mass production techniques, the demand for spray booths skyrocketed over the years, and many other manufacturers came in to the market.
In 1990, DeVilbiss was acquired by ITW, a tool manufacturer based in Chicago.
In 1984 Thermal Downdraft Systems began importing and selling booths manufactured by Blowtherm, an Italian manufacturer of downdraft spray booths.
Over the next decade, Thermal Downdraft Systems and Blowtherm would partner to create the North American company Blowtherm USA in 1993, which would begin manufacturing their automotive spray booth products in the USA.
Blowtherm USA purchased the DeVilbiss spray booth division from ITW in 1998, which was rebranded under the name ‘Team Blowtherm’. The following year, Team Blowtherm purchased the Binks spray booth division, and incorporated its product offering under the Team Blowtherm brand.
Other brands incorporated into Global Finishing Systems are JBI and Blu-Surf.
Product development
GFS’ extensive product line includes equipment from all these previous brands, now manufactured under the Global Finishing Solutions name.
2010 saw Global Finishing Solutions grow to include over 400 employees and operate from multiple locations in North America.
A massive expansion in 2011 allowed GFS to consolidate all manufacturing processes under one roof at the facility in Osseo, Wisconsin.
GFS’ corporate office and manufacturing plant is the largest and most technically capable spray booth manufacturing facility in the world, and additional sales and support offices continue to operate in both Mexico and Canada.
In addition to expanding the manufacturing facility and investing in machinery and equipment, GFS has also made great strides in product development and technological advances. GFS says it developed the world’s first paint booth filter, engineered specifically to provide top performance in the latest waterborne coating technology.
A sophisticated computational fluid dynamics program allows GFS to simulate any concept or configuration to ensure that the highest levels of efficiency and performance are achieved out of a paint booth design.
GFS AdvanceCure System
There are many different designs of waterborne drying systems out in the market today. Each one claims many things: fastest drying times, easiest installation, no maintenance, energy savings.
While it’s almost impossible to say with absolute certainty which system is ultimately the best, the better systems will be engineered with a purpose.
The features that are built in to the best waterborne drying systems exist for very specific reasons, and those reasons are typically not very obvious to the end user.
GFS has put together a short list of some of the prominent frequently asked questions that apply specifically to the GFS AdvanceCure system.
- Why do we pull air from inside the cabin?
Simple: The air inside the cabin has already been filtered twice, and is much cleaner than outside air. In a GFS downdraft paint booth, the air is first drawn through a pre-filter located inside the heat unit, then is pushed in to the plenum where it is filtered a second time by the cabin ceiling filters.
The last thing you want is dirty air spoiling the work you have just completed.
Many other solutions rely on fan blades to push the air from the booth ceiling or corners and are prone to dirt build-up if not thoroughly cleaned regularly.
Still, others draw air directly from outside the cabin, from inside the ceiling plenum, or even from your compressed air system.
This adds another layer to the complexity of ensuring that the air being used by the system is clean and free of moisture and contaminants.
- What about the need for heated air?
Modern downdraft paint booths provide more than enough heat through the use of direct-fired burners so that additional heat is simply not necessary or beneficial at this stage of the game.
We simply choose to make better use of the heat that already exists inside the cabin.
The AdvanceCure system takes the existing heated air and essentially turns the booth into a giant convection oven. Using this convection principle, the heated air is forced over and around the entire vehicle.
The result is the entire vehicle reaches bake temperature more evenly and in much less time.
In a traditional booth without AdvanceCure, the laminar airflow pushes the air down from above, heating the top of the car first and the bottom and recessed areas at a slower rate. AdvanceCure effectively solves this variance.
- What about the physical working space inside my booth?
AdvanceCure modules sit on the sides or in the corners of the booth, out of the way of the critical working area. Other systems may reduce your working ceiling height.
- What about ease of use?
GFS integrates the AdvanceCure controls with your booth controls to seamlessly optimise your work cycles. When integrated in to the control panel on your booth, they can be programmed to automatically come on during the bake cycle.
With no need for the painters to learn complicated controls or worry about remembering to turn the system on, they can concentrate on what they do best – paint.
In addition, the AdvanceCure system can be used one module at a time depending on what area of the vehicle you are painting. Are you just painting a bumper or quarter panel? Then simply use one or two of the modules, instead of all four, to save even more energy. The AdvanceCure modules are easy to manually switch on and off as needed.
- Are you sure they can be installed in my paint booth?
GFS has developed several different models of AdvanceCure modules that allow us to easily customise the system based on the unique needs of an existing paint booth.
No matter what brand or model of paint booth an accelerated airflow system to help with production and performance with waterborne paints can easily be retrofitted.
There are over 10 difference booth designs available from GFS including a clever parts booth, as well as a wide array of prep stations and paint mixing rooms.
For more information, call 03 9303 9688 or see www.peregrineindustries.com.au.