Paint spray booth with longitudinal air flow

In a paint spray booth having a perforated ceiling and a perforated floor interconnected by two outer booth side walls to define a tunnel with an entrance end and an exit end with articles to be painted moving longitudinally through and along the tunnel from the entrance end to the exit end, a source of inlet air, and a paint spray/air separator and air exhaust system positioned beneath the perforated floor, the improvement comprising:

• air inlet means at the entrance and exit ends for directing air flow longitudinally inwardly from the exit and entrance ends along paths substantially parallel to a path of travel of the articles to be painted;
• a perforate inner wall means extending substantially parallel to a longitudinal direction of movement of the articles to be painted and surrounding at least a portion of a paint application area in the tunnel and spaced inwardly from the perforated ceiling and outer side walls of the booth and including means for defining an annular volume surrounding the perforated inner wall means in communication with the source of inlet air for receipt of air under pressure directed against the perforate inner wall means, the perforate inner wall means operative to admit supplemental inlet air into the paint application area away from the perforate inner wall means toward the path of travel of the articles being painted;
• air exhaust means separate from the air exhaust system associated with the paint spray/air separator, the air exhaust means positioned in the tunnel between the entrance and exit ends and having an exhaust opening surrounding at least a portion of an outer periphery of the paint application area above the perforated floor;
• and
• first and second supplementary air exhaust means in fluid communication with the air exhaust means and extending longitudinally along the tunnel between the perforated floor and the paint application area on either side of the path of travel of the articles to be painted, the first and second supplementary air exhaust means each including a slotted opening extending longitudinally for substantially an entire length of the paint application area and operative to draw out overspray falling toward the perforated floor while substantially isolating such withdrawn overspray from contact with any apparatus positioned beneath the path of travel of the articles to be painted.