It is customary to spraypaint automobiles and other mass-produced articles in a spray booth having the physical characteristics of an elongated corridor or chamber through which the automobiles are longitudinally conveyed and within which a human operator or mechanical robot or a combination of same actuate paint spraying equipment. It is essential in the operation of a paint spray booth to maintain a proper supply of fresh air and to remove paint overspray by means of an air exhaust system.
It is known to remove paint overspray from the air by drawing the air through water flooded cylinders disposed along the center line of a subfloor within the booth at longitudinally continuous planes which slope toward the center line and which are flooded with a thin sheet of water which catches some of the paint overspray. A mixing action between air and water takes place within the spaced cylinders to catch the remaining paint overspray. Water flowing down through the cylinders drops into a disposal sluice which runs from the paint spray booth to a treatment center. Such a paint spray booth is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. to Halls No. 3,421,293.
My co-pending application Ser. No. 851,253 titled "Paint Spray Booth with Flooded Floor" now U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,319 issued Sept. 16, 1980 discloses an improved paint spray booth having a relatively flat flooded subfloor and a plurality of longitudinally spaced cylindrical or tubular outlet structures with means defining walls which extend above the subfloor to create a substantial depth of subfloor flooding, i.e., on the order of three inches, and to produce a weir effect. Other features include a simplified water delivery system comprising inlet conduits which extend upwardly through the subfloor from a supply conduit.