The present invention relates generally to managing the amount of energy consumed by a manufacturing facility, and more particularly to a system and method for reducing the energy consumption of a facility in which painting and/or paint-drying operations may take place.
In many paint application facilities, it is desirable to apply the paint to one or more particular products at a controlled temperature and/or humidity. Such control of the temperature and humidity facilitates the application of the paint to the product. Air makeup units are often used to draw air from outside the building into the building. The air makeup units change the humidity to the desired level and adjust the temperature as necessary before delivering the air to the interior of the building. The air may be specifically delivered to one or more paint spray booths where paint is applied in a spray fashion to one or more products.
As is known in the art, the paint particulates that end up in the air during the spray painting process can be removed via one or more water wash units. Such water wash units may clean the air of paint particulate by passing the air over or through one or more water curtains. Such a process causes the paint particulates in the air to be transferred to the water. The paint particulates can then be removed from the water through the use of known flocculating agents and/or other methods.
The amount of energy consumed by the air makeup unit in conditioning the air to the desired temperature and/or humidity may be significant. While such energy consumption can be mitigated by recirculating a least a portion of the conditioned air—after going through the water wash—the water washes are rarely, if ever, capable of removing 100% of the paint particulate. Therefore, the residual paint particulate in the recirculating air may accumulate in undesirable locations and/or cause clogging, or contribute to other functional degradations of the system. In order to avoid these problems, the washed air may simply be vented to the atmosphere rather than recirculated.
The manufacturing facilities that apply paint to products may also include one or more drying booths in which the painted products are heated until the paint dries. Such drying booths may alternatively be located in separate facilities. Regardless of their location, such drying booths may also consume a significant amount of power.