Fundamentals of the modelling of electrostatically supported painting processes

Abstract
The paper summarises the investigations performed at the Fraunhofer IPA on the numerical simulation of electrostatically supported spray painting processes used in the automotive industry. Three examples, i.e. high-speed rotary bell with contact charge system and external charge system, as well as powder coating simulation using a corona spray gun are showed. Numerical models for electrostatically supported painting processes were implemented in Fluent, a commercial CFD code based on an unstructured finite volume mesh. These models account for all important effects involved in the relevant physical processes, being able to predict the film thickness distribution and the paint transfer efficiency on the work piece.