Volume 10.2, Page 1 - October 2004
Fleetwood Motor Homes Installs State Of The Art Full Body Paint Lines

Motor Home with Full Body Paint

Paxinos, Pennsylvania/Riverside, California - Fleetwood Motor Homes approached Tellkamp Systems, Inc. for their help in designing and installing two complete liquid paint lines to produce full body paint on some of their Class A motor home models. The unique, integrated, state of the art paint lines incorporate the following design characteristics:

• Assembly Line Paint Finishing Operation
• Total Enclosure Design
• Tellkamp Systems' Spray Booth Recirculation Technology
• Temperature Controlled, Dust Free Environment For High Quality Painting
• State of the Art VOC Abatement System
The integrated paint line and air pollution control system had to meet Fleetwood's strict requirements for a high quality coat automotive paint finish. The 3 coat paint process from DuPont® uses high VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) content to provide excellent paint adhesion, high gloss retention and paint durability resulting in a customized look for the Fleetwood motor homes.

Figure 1. Three Coat Liquid Paint Process for Motor Homes
Each of the new painting facilities (Riverside and Paxinos) is set up with seven recirculating down draft spray booths, two climate controlled prep area enclosures, and two clear coat curing ovens. The high production paint system is arranged in two parallel lines as shown in Figure 1. (See Figure 1 above.)

Stringent air quality regulations required the two new paint systems at Fleetwood to include equipment for controlling the VOC's that are released during the full body paint process. Fleetwood had two options for controlling their VOC emissions. The first option would be to size the VOC abatement equipment for the full volume of exhaust air from the new paint system. Fleetwood's second option was to utilize technology that would concentrate or recirculate the exhaust air prior to controlling the VOC emissions.

Roxidizer® RTO VOC Abatement System

Recirculating Down Draft Spray Booth
After a thorough analysis of the different technologies available, Fleetwood chose Tellkamp Systems' Air Volume Reduction Techniques with Roxidizer® RTO technology to reduce the overall volume of paint system exhaust.

Installing traditional VOC abatement equipment sized to handle the full paint system exhaust flow volume would have proven to be cost prohibitive because of the high capital equipment costs and high hourly operating costs associated with this approach. It was determined that the only cost effective method of controlling Fleetwood’s VOC emissions would be to reduce the overall volume of paint system exhaust that would require VOC abatement.
Tellkamp's spray booth recirculation techniques minimized the exhaust air volume from the new Fleetwood Motor Home paint systems and resulted in significantly lower capital equipment costs and lower hourly operating costs. (See figure 2.)

Voc Abatement Option
Option No. 1
Option No. 2
VOC Abatement System Design
Traditional Approach
Tellkamp's Air Volume Reduction Techniques
Exhaust Air Volume for VOC Abatement
440,000 cfm
80,000 cfm
Estimated Hourly Operating Cost
$300/hour
$50/hour
Figure 2. Comparison between traditional VOC abatement designs and Tellkamp's Air Volume Reduction Techniques

The integrated paint system design from Tellkamp Systems, Inc. gave Fleetwood Motor Homes a state of the art paint system with the following benefits:

• Ability to Produce the Highest Quality Full Body Paint Treatment
• Compliance with State and Federal Air Quality Requirements
• Tellkamp’s Air Volume Reduction with Roxidizer® Technology Provides the Lowest Capital Equipment and Hourly Operating Costs

The new paint systems installed at the Paxinos and Riverside facilities provide Fleetwood Motor Homes with full body paint capabilities that are unmatched in the motor home industry. The climate controlled paint systems also allow Fleetwood’s employees to operate efficiently in a comfortable working environment.

Climate Controlled Prep Area Enclosure

Fully Painted Motor Home
Editor: Macy Galla
Graphics: Staff
Writer: Scott V. Bogut, Director of Sales


© 2004 Tellkamp Systems, Inc.
15523 Carmenita Road ¤ Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670–5609 ¤ USA
Phone: (562) 802-1621 ¤ Fax: (562) 802-1303 ¤ E-mail: tellkamp@earthlink.net
Web Site: http://www.tellkamp.com
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