Graco Inc. recently announced the launch of PerformAA™ air-assist (AA) and airless spray guns. The new line of manual and automatic applicators reportedly delivers high performance 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. Graco reports that, at 1 lb (460 g), PerformAA 15, 50, and Airless are the lightest manual AA spray guns available. Other features include:
- Ultra-light trigger pull to reduce fatigue and muscle stress
- Ergonomic handle and finger rest to fit comfortably in any sized hand
- Cartridge-style components that minimize maintenance downtime
In addition, PerformAA Auto includes 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 assist in this, we created the Graco Gauge and added angle marks into the fluid housing on all PerformAA Auto guns.”
For additional details about these new spray guns, visit www.graco.com/performaa.
