An air-powered paint sprayer uses air compressors to spray the paint with great force whereas airless paint sprayers use motorized pumps to pressurize the paint and to push it out through the sprayer. The paint is pulled out with a fine mist with the help of built in atomized tube.
This will provide smooth foam to exit out with the minimum amount of paint. An airless paint sprayer can make quick work of even the biggest painting jobs. They are portable and can be easy to tilt the paint over the quart or to pull paint directly from the container. Airless paint sprayers can handle any type of paint like primer, stain, varnish etc. Even thick paint can be handled by the airless sprayers which usually cannot be handled with other type of sprayers.
How the airless paint sprayer works
Airless sprayers come with a pump, hose, tip and gun. The narrow end of the hose is connected to the nozzle and the wider end will go into the paint. The gun allows the painter to control the flow of the paint. If you press the trigger, the valve of the sprayer opens and allows the paint to flow through the tip. There are various sizes of sprayer tips available in the market. The size of the tips determines the amount of paint flow through the nozzle.
There are two basic types of airless sprayer pumps: piston and diaphragm. A piston pump is used to draw thicker paints whereas the diaphragm is used for the thinner paints and varnishes. The pump gets hydraulic power from the motor. When the piston moves up, vacuum is created and this will draw the paint into the chamber. This is how an airless paint sprayer works.