Global Finishing Solutions

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GFS Booth Blog: The History of Spray Booths & Global Finishing ...

The heritage of GFS stretches further back than any other manufacturer of spray booth environments, though it’s likely that you haven’t always known us as ‘GFS’. We’re really the result of the evolution of the spray booth and the advancement of the most successful manufacturers in the industry. You may recognize such brand names as DeVilbiss, Team Blowtherm, JBI, and Binks, but you may not realize that all those brands were part of the creation of the company you know today as GFS. The story really starts with a man by the name of Dr. Allen DeVilbiss. Back in 1888, he developed a device called the ‘atomizer’, which is really just a fancy name for a sprayer. Originally engineered for applications in the health care industry, it was quickly recognized that this device could be used to quickly and effectively apply paints and coatings. At the time, painting was done with the slow and messy ‘brush and can’ method, and companies such as Ford and other large manufacturers were wasting large amounts of time during the painting process as a result. Once the atomizer was adapted for spraying paint, production rates increased dramatically. DeVilbiss was one of the earliest makers of spray booths, followed quickly by others like Joe Binks, founder of Star Brass Works in 1911, which would eventually be known as Binks Spray Booths. Driven by the adoption of mass production techniques, the demand for spray booths skyrocketed over the years, and many other manufacturers came in to the market. In 1990, DeVilbiss was acquired by ITW, a tool manufacturer based in Chicago. In 1984 Thermal Downdraft Systems began importing and selling booths manufactured by Blowtherm SPA, an Italian manufacturer of downdraft spray booths. Over the next decade, Thermal Downdraft Systems and Blowtherm SPA would partner to create the North American company, Blowtherm USA in 1993, which would begin manufacturing their automotive spray booth products in the USA. In 1975, a company based out of Wisconsin known as ‘JBI’ was founded, producing spray booths and related finishing products for the automotive, industrial, and aerospace industries. In 1998 JBI was purchased by the Curran Group, a holding company based in Illinois with interests in the porcelain tile, rail industry, and asphalt contracting sectors. Shortly after, in 2000, JBI and the Curran Group purchased a US-based finishing systems manufacturer known as Blu-Surf.

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