Capture of Fine Particles by a Multivortex Separator in a Paint Drying Chamber

Paint spraying and drying booths are widely used in various industries. During spraying paint and varnish materials, a significant amount of contaminants—paint mist particles—is generated inside the booth, making their capture an important task. Failure to address this issue may lead to explosive hazards, violations of sanitary and environmental regulations, defects in coated parts, and other negative consequences. Ceiling and floor filters are commonly used for this purpose, but they are typically imported and require regular replacement, usually once a month. Therefore, extending their service life is an urgent task. This paper aims to develop a separation device to extend the service life of floor and ceiling filters in a paint-drying booth and enhance the overall efficiency of fine particle capture. The article presents the design of a multivortex separator and describes its operating principle. The direct application of the multivortex separator in a paint-spraying drying chamber at Kamatek Ltd. is considered. To increase filter longevity, it is proposed to install the separator upstream of either the floor or ceiling filters. The efficiency of the multivortex separator was calculated for two installation configurations within the paint-drying booth. Based on the efficiency calculations, the following conclusions were drawn: when the separator is installed upstream of the floor filters (with an inlet velocity of 0.3 m/s), its efficiency averages 45% for particles sized 1 to 10 µm; when installed upstream of the ceiling filters in the narrow section (with an inlet velocity of 5 m/s), its efficiency averages 88% for particles of the same size range. In practical terms, installing the multivortex separator before the ceiling fine filters is more effective, as it achieves higher efficiency with minimal capital investment.