Electrostatic coating method and apparatus

Abstract

An apparatus for electrostatically coating a workpiece has an insulating separator valve mechanism for electrically separating a paint supply passage for supplying an electrically conductive paint to a coating gun, into a paint supply passage to which a high voltage will be applied and a paint supply passage to which no high voltage will be applied. The insulating separator valve mechanism has a first valve body connectable to said paint supply passage through a first on/off valve, and a second valve body connectable to said paint supply passage through a second on/off valve. While the first and second valve bodies are connected to each other and the first and second on/off valves are closed, a paint trap is cleaned by a cleaning medium, which is discharged into a second dump passage. A process of cleaning the paint trap for a paint color change is efficiently and reliably carried out to reliably remove paint residuals from the paint trap.