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How to regulate the pressure to paint with an airless gun?

In this post, we will talk about different methods to regulate the pressure to paint with an airless gun.

The proper pressure to paint with airless depends on the material we are going to use. Therefore, there is no standard pressure, but the machine needs to be adjusted for each paint (together with the nozzle and filters).

After several years of experience, we have noticed that many clients have doubts about this issue. As a general rule, most customers who come to us for help paint too much pressure on their airless gun. There are also those who work with little pressure, but they are the least.

In this article, we will discuss the following points, so you have no doubts about how to regulate the pressure of your airless equipment, and why it is so important:

  • Problems painting with little pressure
  • Problems painting with too much pressure
  • Consequences of a worn nozzle not everything is the fault of the pressure!
  • 2 Methods to adjust the pressure correctly:
    • See the datasheet of the painting
    • Adjust the pressure until the correct spray pattern is achieved
  • Beginner’s Tip
  • Other tutorials and articles about painting with airless

Problems painting with a low pressure gun

When we work with low pressure, we generate an irregular spray pattern. We will notice this, especially at the edges. Meanwhile, some gaps and other areas with less paint than appropriate will be seen in the center of the pattern.

Problems spraying with too much pressure

Imagine that you are going to paint with your airless gun at 200 bar pressure, as an example. What would happen? When working with too much pressure the paint particles will be sprayed with too much force. This supposes:

  • Increased creation of spray mist, so you will have to protect more the areas you do not want to paint. > More time spent working!
  • A lot of material is wasted. > Higher paint costs!
  • Airless equipment and accessories (for example nozzles) will wear much more. Outcome? Higher cost in accessories and surely in repairs.

Problem of painting with worn nozzles

As much as you try to adjust the pressure of your airless equipment, you may never get a good spray pattern. This is because the nozzle you are using is worn. One of the typical consequences of a worn nozzle is that the spray pattern becomes smaller. This results in a greater amount of paint focusing on one point.

Method 1: Technical data sheet

The fastest way to regulate the pressure to paint with an airless gun and not spend a drop of paint is to look at the technical sheet of the material you are going to use.

In this file you will find two fundamental data to paint with airless:

  • Work pressure
  • Nozzle size

If the data sheet does not contain this data, it is best to contact the manufacturer and ask about it. If the paint producer cannot provide you with this information (which is quite unlikely), we will first have to choose the appropriate airless nozzle and then move on to our second method. Here we go!

Method 2: Regulate the pressure to achieve the correct spray pattern

How to regulate the pressure to paint with an airless gun with a perfect spray pattern and the minimum cost of time and materials?

This is the one million question. But hey, with this simple exercise you can do it yourself with your airless paint machine:

  1. Start your device and put the suction line inside the paint bucket
  2. The pressure rises to about 120 bars
  3. Take a pass on the wall or paper or cardboard and observe the result
  4. If you are not happy with the result, increase the pressure of your airless equipment by 15-2o bars
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the spray pattern is homogeneous with the minimum possible working pressure.

By performing this simple process you will ensure that you achieve the optimum spray pattern with the minimum possible pressure. This translates into:

  • Best finishes
  • Less waste of material
  • Reduce room preparation time
  • Lower repair and purchase costs

They are all advantages!

In the following video, you can see this method in action and also what happens when you do not use the correct working pressure. Do not miss it!

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