Electron E-LAB+3 Master DI Bench-Top Laboratory Unit with Inline Injector

The bench-top unit of the E-COAT+3 series

Built for sample parts, colour development and quality control. Rather than drawing from a hopper or a container, the E-LAB+3 Master DI takes its powder from a 500 ml cup mounted directly on the inline injector. You coat a sample panel with exactly the same control technology as in production, but you only need a handful of powder and a square metre of bench space. Free delivery within 7 to 10 days.

What an electron laboratory unit is for

There are four situations in which a separate bench-top unit earns its keep, even when a full installation is already on the shop floor:

• Colour approval before a run. A sample panel from the same batch, coated with documented parameters, before you commit a hundred parts to a colour that looks different once cured than it did on the swatch.
• Customer samples. When a client wants to see three shades side by side, you do not tie up the production line and reset it three times.
• Incoming and batch inspection. New delivery, same colour, different batch: a test panel run under identical parameters reveals differences in opacity, flow and gloss level before they show up on a customer's part.
• Training new staff. Spray distance, travel speed and a feel for powder output are learned on panels, not on paid work.

The unit is equally the entry point for businesses that want to try powder coating before committing to a particular equipment configuration. You will find the full range of floor-standing units in our Electron powder coating equipment category.

Cup feed instead of a hopper

The E-FEED+3 VI inline injector sits directly above the cup and forms a single assembly with it. The path from powder to nozzle is therefore short, which has two practical consequences: almost no material is left in the system after purging, and a colour change essentially means swapping the cup.

The cups use an easy-lock design and come off without tools. The 500 ml cup is supplied as standard, the 1000 ml cup is available as an option. What that means in terms of material can be estimated:

Cup	Fill quantity (estimated)	Roughly enough for
500 ml	around 250 to 350 g	1.5 to 2.5 m² at 60 µm
1000 ml	around 500 to 700 g	3 to 5 m² at 60 µm

These figures assume a bulk density of 0.5 to 0.7 kg/l and a transfer efficiency of 60 to 75 %. They are intended as an order of magnitude, not a guarantee. For a series of A4-sized sample panels the 500 ml cup is normally more than sufficient.

The advantage of small quantities shows up in the cost per trial. Testing a special colour does not require putting a kilogram into the system, only for it to sit in the cup afterwards or end up as waste.

Repeatability is the real purpose

A sample part only means something if it can be reproduced under the same conditions. That is precisely what the Master control unit is built for, and it is the same unit fitted to the floor-standing machines.

You create a dedicated recipe for each test procedure, with 50 memory slots available in total. Voltage, current, total air and powder ratio are therefore documented and can be recalled at any time. If a customer asks six months later why the repeat order looks different from the approved sample, you can call up the parameters of the original and run the comparison under identical conditions. Without stored recipes, that question cannot be answered properly.

For assessing thin films and sensitive colours, the control unit automatically works in fine-control mode below 10 µA, regulating the powder charge more tightly. We describe how this works in detail in our category overview of Electron equipment.

Setup and footprint

The unit ships with a mounting kit for bench-top use. Control unit, gun holder, injector and cup sit on a shared console that you place on a workbench or a trolley. At 37 × 57 × 34 cm and 13 kg the assembly stays portable, which helps for demonstrations at a customer's site or when moving between lab and workshop.

It connects to an ordinary socket (100 to 240 V) and to treated compressed air at 5.5 to 7.0 bar. The pneumatic hoses and fittings are included.

The electron handgun in laboratory use

The E-GUN+3 C1 weighs 495 grams. In a laboratory that matters differently than in production: here you do not work in long passes but in many short, controlled bursts, often with the same hand across an entire series of panels. A light gun keeps that movement more consistent, which feeds directly into how comparable the panels are.

The buttons on the back of the gun let you adjust the powder volume while spraying, without looking away from the work. The integrated LED can be linked to the trigger and helps when judging the deposit on dark substrates.

Cleaning and maintaining the inline injector

Since the injector is cleaned more often in laboratory use than in production, here is the procedure in brief. Separate the injector from the cup, remove the powder hose from the conductive gun connection, then blow out the injector body and the powder inlet with oil-free and water-free compressed air. To check that the path is clear, apply air to the inlet and confirm that it emerges at the gun connection.

For a thorough clean, the PTFE bushing and the powder transport system can be dismantled: unscrew the injector nut, turn the transport assembly 55 degrees anticlockwise and pull it off in one piece. On reassembly the air hole must face upwards and the mark on the component must line up with the line on the injector body. This is the only point on this unit where something can genuinely be got wrong.

Scope of delivery

Manufacturer's article code: A06ELAB30

• E-COAT+3 Master controller unit
• E-GUN+3 C1 handgun with 7 m cable and LED lighting
• E-FEED+3 VI inline injector
• 500 ml powder cup, easy-lock
• Pneumatic hoses and fittings
• Mounting kit for bench-top use

Available as an option: 1000 ml cup. Not included: powder coating, compressed air treatment, extraction and earthing equipment.

Technical data

Rated input voltage	100 to 240 VAC, 50 to 60 Hz
Input power	60 VA
High voltage at the gun	up to 120 kV
Output current at the gun	up to 120 µA
Recipe memory	50 (P01 to P50), four preset at the factory
Protection class, control unit	IP54
Protection class, gun	IP64
Explosion protection	control unit II 3(2) D (Zone 22), gun II 2 D (Zone 21)
Max. surface temperature	85 °C
Compressed air connection	8 mm diameter
Inlet pressure and capacity	5.5 to 7.0 bar at 150 to 200 l/min
Air quality	max. 1.4 g/m³ water vapour, max. 0.12 mg/m³ oil
Electrode rinsing air	0 to 16 l/min (factory setting 2 l/min)
Atomising air	10 to 75 l/min
Conveying air	10 to 100 l/min
Total air	20 to 175 l/min
Powder cup	500 ml as standard, 1000 ml optional
Powder hose	antistatic, 7 m, 11 mm diameter
Suitable powders	epoxy and polyester
Gun weight	495 g
Dimensions	37 × 57 × 34 cm
Weight	13 kg
Warranty	2 years against manufacturing and component defects

Powder output with the inline injector

Conveying air ratio	50 l/min total air	75 l/min	100 l/min
20 %	10 g/min	15 g/min	40 g/min
40 %	30 g/min	85 g/min	155 g/min
60 %	72 g/min	253 g/min	295 g/min
80 %	156 g/min	312 g/min	353 g/min
100 %	225 g/min	355 g/min	425 g/min

In laboratory work you will normally operate at the lower end of this table. The higher output figures are documented for production applications and show that the technology is not limited to small quantities.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a booth and extraction for a bench-top unit as well?

Yes. The smaller quantity of powder does not change the physics: overspray still occurs, the zone classification still applies, and the manufacturer still requires the control unit to be switched on only when the booth is working properly. For laboratory purposes a much smaller booth than in production will do. Talk to us and we will tell you what size suits your sample parts.

Can I coat real components with this unit?

Technically yes, since the control unit and the gun match the floor-standing machines. In practice the cup sets the limit. At a fill quantity of 250 to 350 grams you will have to refill on larger parts, and that costs more time than it saves. For one-off pieces up to around A3 size and for small components it works well; once you have regular orders, a unit with a hopper or box feeder is the more economical choice.

How quick is a colour change?

Take off the cup, purge the powder path with the rapid purge mode, fit the new cup. That puts you in the range of one to two minutes, provided you keep several cups on hand. For a series of five or six colours in one morning it is worth preparing a separate cup for each and doing the cleaning together at the end.

What separates the Master from the Pro version of the laboratory unit?

The E-LAB+3 is also available as a Pro version with an LED segment display, three factory recipes and manual pressure regulators. For laboratory work the 50 recipe slots of the Master version make a particularly strong case, because documenting parameters is exactly where the benefit lies here. If you use the unit purely for training or occasional samples, the Pro version will serve you well. We are adding it to our range shortly.

Matching materials

• Powder coating in over 200 colours, including small containers for sample series
• Curing ovens for baking the sample panels
• Heat-resistant tape for partial areas and dividing lines on the test panel

Our guide to powder coating yourself describes the complete process from pre-treatment to curing.

Delivery and service

Within Germany we deliver in 7 to 10 days and free of shipping charges, to Austria in 7 to 14 days. At 13 kg the unit ships as a parcel, so no freight forwarder is involved.

We keep the wear parts for the inline injector in stock individually, in particular the PTFE bushing, the injector nozzle and the associated O-rings. The manufacturer lists these items explicitly as recommended stock parts, because they affect powder output directly once they reach the end of their service life. Replacement cups in 500 and 1000 ml are also available from us.