DeVilbiss

Heritage: 138 Years of Precision Atomization

DeVilbiss didn't start in a machine shop — it started in a doctor's office. In 1888, Dr. Allen DeVilbiss, an ear, nose, and throat physician in Toledo, Ohio, was frustrated by a simple problem: liquid medication slid past his patients' throats before it could take effect. His solution was a rubber bulb, some tubing, and the base of an oil can. Squeeze the bulb, air rushed across the tube opening, atmospheric pressure dropped, and liquid was drawn upward into a fine controllable mist. He had just invented the atomizer.

Seventeen years later, his son Thomas A. DeVilbiss joined the company and recognized something his father hadn't: that same principle — compressed air shearing liquid into microscopic particles — could do something far beyond medicine. In 1907, Thomas produced the first hand-held, air-powered spray gun. By directing compressed air across a pickup tube submerged in paint, he created a consistent, controllable atomized pattern that the furniture and automotive industries adopted almost immediately. The industrial spray gun was born in Toledo, from a throat remedy.

That origin matters because it explains DeVilbiss's enduring obsession: atomization quality above all else. Every engineering decision the company has made over 138 years — air cap geometry, fluid tip design, needle taper, inlet pressure mapping — traces back to the same founding question Thomas DeVilbiss asked in 1907: how do you break a liquid into the most consistent, most controllable particle size possible?

Today's DeVilbiss: The Refinisher's Benchmark

Today DeVilbiss is a core pillar of the Binks platform — the unified brand that brought together DeVilbiss, Binks, Ransburg, BGK, and MS under one portfolio in 2024. Within that platform, DeVilbiss is the precision atomization standard: the brand professional refinishers, wood finishers, and aerospace coating specialists specify when finish quality is non-negotiable.

DeVilbiss was also the company that first solved the tension between finish quality and environmental compliance. As VOC regulations tightened in the 1990s, DeVilbiss developed the first Compliant spray guns — designs that achieved EPA-mandated transfer efficiencies without sacrificing the atomization quality professional finishers depend on. Their Trans-Tech® atomization technology, a proprietary hybrid of conventional and HVLP principles, exceeds the 65% transfer efficiency threshold required by EPA guidelines while delivering the particle consistency that pure HVLP guns struggle to match on high-solid and two-stage materials.

The current product line reflects that legacy across several tiers:

• DV1 — redesigned from the ground up, the DV1 is widely considered the current benchmark for automotive refinishing. Gun body, nozzle system, air caps, and air valve were all reworked together, producing the particle consistency and pattern uniformity that top collision shops demand on waterborne basecoat and high-solid clearcoat.
• GTi Pro Lite — at 445 grams, one of the lightest professional spray guns on the market. Introduced in 2013 with a complete redesign including TE10, TE20, HV30, and T110 air cap options across nozzle sizes from 0.85mm to 2.2mm, covering everything from detail work to high-production clear application.
• JGA — the drop-forged aluminum workhorse. DeVilbiss's industry-standard conventional gun for high-production industrial finishing, available in pressure, siphon, and gravity configurations with 300-grade stainless steel fluid passages. The gun auto shops, industrial lines, and military contractors have relied on for decades.
• Advance HD — available in HVLP and Trans-Tech versions for both gravity and pressure feed, covering production wood, general industrial, and refinishing applications that need compliant atomization without the weight of a full-size gun.
• Automatic spray guns — compact automatic models for robotic and reciprocator applications, with independent fan, atomizing, and triggering air for consistent reproduction in automated production lines.
• DeKups® disposable cup system — the industry-standard disposable liner and cup platform that minimizes solvent cleaning between color changes and eliminates cross-contamination. Compatible across the DeVilbiss gun lineup and widely adopted in high-throughput refinish environments.
• Clean air and regulation equipment — inline air filtration, back-pressure regulators, and operator breathing systems that complete the spray station and keep both the finish and the painter protected.

Why CET for DeVilbiss

Coating Equipment Technology sells and services DeVilbiss as part of our Binks Diamond Partner relationship — the highest distributor designation in the Binks global network, covering the full portfolio including DeVilbiss, Binks, and Ransburg. That designation is built on stocking depth, repair capability, and application expertise, not just purchasing volume.

For DeVilbiss customers specifically, that means:

• Guns and parts in stock. We carry DeVilbiss spray guns, air caps, fluid tips, needle sets, and DeKups consumables — the parts that keep a refinish booth or production line running without waiting on a distributor who only stocks catalog items.
• Gun rebuild and repair. Our in-house technicians rebuild DeVilbiss guns daily. When a DV1 or JGA starts throwing an inconsistent pattern or dropping atomization quality, we diagnose and repair rather than replace — because a properly rebuilt DeVilbiss gun performs like new.
• Air cap and tip selection. Matching the right DeVilbiss air cap to a specific coating and application is a judgment call that requires both product knowledge and finishing experience. Whether you're choosing between HVLP and Trans-Tech for a VOC-regulated shop, selecting nozzle size for a high-solid clear, or configuring an automatic gun for a wood line — CET has been making those calls since 1993, with team experience reaching back to 1964.
• Complete spray station buildout. A DeVilbiss gun performs at its best when the air supply is clean, regulated, and correctly pressured. CET supplies the full station — gun, filtration, regulation, hose, and breathing air — and can integrate DeVilbiss guns into larger Binks fluid-handling systems when the application requires it.

Whether you're running a single DV1 in a refinish booth or equipping a multi-station wood line with automatic DeVilbiss guns and a full fluid handling system, CET brings the product depth, parts inventory, and application knowledge to specify it right and keep it producing.