MINNEAPOLIS – Graco Inc. announced the launch of PerformAA™ air assist (AA) and airless spray guns. The company reports that the new line of manual and automatic applicators delivers performance above all with material-specific air caps and other features seldom found in AA guns commonly used in wood, metal and general industrial finishing.

“For a high-quality finish, one air cap does not fit all,” said Wendy Hartley, Global Product Manager for manual finishing equipment in Graco’s Industrial Products Division. “To produce consistent atomization and a clean pattern when spraying certain materials, it's important to have air caps designed for them.”

Air caps geometrically designed for general finishing, wood lacquer, low viscosity, high viscosity, quick drying, top coat, and waterborne applications fit both manual and automatic PerformAA models.

At one pound (460 grams), PerformAA 15, 50 and Airless are reportedly the lightest manual AA spray guns available. Other operator-friendly features include:

• Ultra-light trigger pull to reduce fatigue and muscle stress,
• Ergonomic handle and finger rest to fit comfortably in any sized hand, and
• Cartridge-style components that minimize maintenance down time.

Graco Inc. reports that PerformAA Auto is the only automatic air-assisted spray gun on the market with features that help operators and maintenance technicians set and quickly repeat exact air cap orientation. This is especially important in flat-line finishing automation.

“We observed people out in the field using protractors and levels to try to get air caps back to that same angle that they had originally,” said Bill Heuer, Global Product Manager for automatic finishing equipment in Graco’s Industrial Products Division. “To Graco assist in this, we created the Graco Gauge and added angle marks into the fluid housing on all PerformAA Auto guns.”

The Graco Gauge air cap alignment tool, plus the angle indicators, help save time and labor whenever air caps are cleaned or guns are serviced.

For more information about the new PerformAA air assist spray gun line, visit www.graco.com/performaa.