The paint finishing market in Europe has seen the recent development of technologies that push the basic pigging concept into new areas of use and to far greater levels of sophistication. This article reviews three advanced pigging technology applications that are coming into widespread use in Europe and are now gaining notice in North America.
Pigging technology developed in Europe in recent years addresses the need to reduce these losses. The basic concept is to load only the minimum required volume of paint into the circulation line, inject a pig behind it, and use the pig to send that limited-volume "slug" of paint down the line to the various paint application stations, in a sense "tracking" the job as it progresses through the paint booth. For that reason, these systems are commonly known as tracking paint systems. The pressure required to supply the paint at each application station is provided by compressed air behind the pig. Ideally, the volume of paint remaining in the circulation line is nearly exhausted just as the painting process for any given target is completed.