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Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive by Ron Joseph February, 2004 Compressed Air Humidity and Paint Q. Have you found any information regarding the allowable moisture content (in RH or Dew Point) in the compressed air from any of the paint manufacturer's in the last couple years? Aside from, the dryer the better, I haven't gotten any concrete answers as of yet, from any of the paint manufacturer's that I've contacted. I'm engineering manager for a compressed air dryer/filter manufacturer (RTi, www.driair.com) and we currently make the best paint booth product (for compressed air) on the market. We are trying to get supporting data to better justify these systems, to the users. I found this response of yours from a couple years ago. Is there any new info available? A. Thanks for your email. Unfortunately, I have not seen anything new on this topic. One of the problems associated with humidity is that not all resins behave the same in the presence of high humidity. For instance, two-component polyurethanes are very sensitive, and moisture-curing polyurethanes (a different chemistry) actually depends on moisture for its ability to cure. Epoxy, alkyd and other resins have different sensitivities, or may even be more tolerant to humidity. You might try contacting the universities that specialize in coating technologies to see if they have done any work in this area. In this regard, you might contact the following: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI |