At one time California led the way in environmentally sound regulations for the use of spray equipment. Some now say their outdated regulations ignore more efficient technologies and promote greater pollution than necessary. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), the Bay Area AQMD, and the San Diego AQMD are regulatory bodies that control air quality in California. Their collective goal is to take a tough stance on reducing volatile organic compounds emitted from sources within the state of California. Their rules mandate 65 or greater transfer efficiency (TE) and assume that high volume, low pressure (HVLP) air-atomizing spray equipment, with atomizing air between 0.1 and 10 psi, are the only nonelectrostatic spray devices that can deliver this level of efficiency. Before California introduced their HVLP regulations, many plants that had spraying operations were using conventional-type spray guns. This high-production technology, though delivering outstanding finish quality, was extremely wasteful and rarely reached more than 25 TE. The California agencies eventually banned most conventional spraying and instituted the rules allowing essentially only HVLP-type spraying equipment. Most California manufacturers found that traditional HVLP did meet the efficiency requirements when operated within the regulated atomizing air pressure parameters but found that HVLP delivered either finish quality without productivity or productivity without finish quality. Consequently, to remain competitive, they were forced to cheat on air pressure settings to attain spraying performance and risk violations and fines or move to a different location where spraying regulations were less stringent.
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