The paint spray booth is often considered the bottleneck of the body shop. How can you alleviate this and make its role more efficient?

“We still see too many basic mistakes,” laments Roger Charron, Equipment Sales Representative at Les Entrepôts A.B. “For example, there are still cars waiting for parts that are constantly being moved around the shop.”

Closer to the paint booth, Charron notes that in some cases, it’s being used for vehicle preparation. Sanding a car or parts in the same booth where paint will be applied certainly doesn’t top the list of best practices.

According to Charron, the paint booth indeed represents a critical point in body shop operations. Its optimal efficiency must be a priority for managers, as virtually all cars and parts under repair will pass through it.

Measuring for improvement

“How do you maximize the paint booth? It’s a broad question. One thing is certain: the first point I want to emphasize is measuring what we do in it to improve,” says Rémi Michaud, Regional Director for Quebec at CARSTAR, who began his career in paint booths with a spray gun in hand.

“You need to fill the paint booth. Increase productivity by combining multiple parts that can be painted simultaneously to maximize its use up to 45 hours a day. If we reach that pace, very profitable for the body shop by the way, we could consider extending working hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., for example.”

And why not buy a second booth, as some managers might instinctively do? “Let’s start by being efficient with the first one,” says Michaud. The day should begin with vehicles and parts ready to be painted. Preparation is a crucial step in this regard. Young technicians may not always appreciate this work, but painters certainly don’t like having to rework or return a poorly prepared vehicle.

To save precious minutes in cold weather, he advises preheating the booth so it’s ready to operate as soon as the painter arrives.

Justifying the investment

Regarding available paint booth technologies, the CARSTAR director is pragmatic. “Is it a real gain in productivity? Will the investment improve effective processes to ensure a good return on investment?” If yes, then why not? For example, he points to an auxiliary drying booth observed with the author during a visit to the CARSTAR shop in Saint-Hyacinthe ( https://autosphere.ca/fr/carrosserie/2024/05/22/le-projet-de-carstar-saint-hyacinthe-se-concretise/). It’s an interesting way to quickly free up the main booth for new projects.

Autosphere wanted to illustrate this article by talking with an efficient body shop owner. In fact, we had the opportunity to discuss this topic with three members of the same family: the Raymonds from Carrosserie ProColor in Sainte-Sophie.

Feeding the beast

“Here, we target tasks to maximize the paint booth,” explains André, accompanied by his son David, daughter Mylène, and wife Brigitte. “We talk morning, noon, and night while following production charts and listening to the managers. We always want parts—which we produce in large numbers here—and vehicles ready for painting.” The policy here is for the process to be fluid; no vehicle goes back. “The key to success is floor management,” sums up David.

The shop has set up a dedicated lane for small repairs to speed up production. Preparation and even part of the painting are done in isolated rooms maintained at the highest level of cleanliness to avoid finish issues.

When technology pays ff

“There may be about 30 body shops in Quebec where a second paint booth would be justified. Body shops have access to management software that allows them to optimize the use of the existing booth,” adds Marc-Olivier Toutant, President of Techno Combustion GMS. “What we see is the replacement of aging paint booths with much more efficient and energy-saving equipment. For example, new booths can offer drying in one hour instead of two for old equipment, doubling production capacity overnight.”

He also mentions that convection heating and baking technology is currently the most interesting. Outdoor air is heated and recirculated, reducing baking time like a similar technology oven.

“There is also infrared radiation technology, which is interesting but whose costs must be weighed against profitability.” The same goes for rail systems, which are impressive but not always practical or justified. Toutant is equally lukewarm about the idea of painting in preparation rooms. “There is no limit for applying primers, but there are for paint. It’s not a long-term solution.”

The holistic approach

We couldn’t conclude this article on process efficiency without hearing from Les Pawlowski, General Manager of Symach for Canada. Here, we talk about a holistic approach, seeing a body shop as an organism where each organ, including the paint booth, plays a role to ensure healthy operations.

Symach is a supplier of body shop equipment, but also a company known for its support in planning. “Our strength and what sets us apart is setting up new facilities or designing major renovations. This allows us to offer our clients a concept where every square foot of the shop can be optimized with minimal bottlenecks and technicians. Obviously, this work is done in close collaboration with the body shop managers.” Each solution stems from analyzing the data and objectives of the existing or developing company.

The Dream Solution

If we specifically focus on painting operations, Pawlowski guides us towards the FixLine solution, which illustrates an ideal world under ideal conditions. According to Symach, this approach allows for painting 14 cars per day compared to four cars in a system based on a traditional paint booth.

The FixLine relies on a preparation room combined with a paint booth extended by an infrared radiation drying chamber. The transition from one room to another is done by sliding on rails while the doors of each room open and close automatically to control dust movement.

While it’s a concept every body shop owner can dream of, it still relies on the shared constant among our other experts that, as the name suggests, the paint booth should continuously serve only to apply and, failing other solutions, dry paint.