Published on: 02 December 2021
After observing painters in various industries wasting time cleaning nozzles and putting up with low transfer efficiency, British Marine member 3M began developing a new generation of spray gun specifically designed to solve these issues.
The result was the 3M™ Performance Industrial Spray Gun, which uses an impact modified polypropylene nozzle system with quick-change atomising heads – meaning paint doesn’t passthrough the body of the gun. This makes clean-up fast, as you can simply wipe the tip of the needle and replace the head each time with no disassembling or soaking in solvent needed. The atomising heads range from sizes 1.1 to 2.0, making it easy to spray a wide range of coatings – from stains and primers to topcoats and even adhesives.
To test the transfer efficiency of the 3M™ Performance Spray Gun, 3M sent it to the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing and Automation in Stuttgart, Germany. Transfer efficiency equates to the amount of paint that’s used on a job. Higher transfer efficiency means less material is wasted and means a cleaner paint booth due to less overspray, which can also help prevent cross-contamination.
The design of the gun means painters can spray from either a pressurised source or a gravity cup. The pressure-fed hose and atomising heads allow for continuous bulk spraying for larger applications. For small areas, the spray gun can be converted to use the 3M™ PPS™ Series 2.0 Spray Cup System – which helps ensure only the right amount of coating needed.
The simple design of the gun means there’s fewer parts to maintain. This design combined with the replaceable nozzles allow a painter to spray a full range of coatings and offer like “brand new” spray gun with every change of the nozzle.