Over 40 years ago it was common to receive a set of accessories when buying a vacuum cleaner for the home. One such accessory was a small plastic spray gun with an attached jar for paint. One end of the hose was attached to the spray gun and the other to the ‘blower’ end of the vacuum cleaner.  Surprisingly, if the paint was thinned enough, it would spray quite well.

Although the system lacked power and sophistication - HVLP was born! It showed that high pressure was not necessary to spray paint. Low pressure could work in exactly the same way - with one major difference - the lower velocity of the air resulted in less over-spray and wasted paint.

True HVLP originators such as Sicmo (Monaco) and Apollo (England) built the first professionally used low pressure spray guns. In fact, until the late 1980’s all other HVLP spray guns copied these early guns in every respect. The Sicmo spray gun (under different names) is still in use today with no significant changes in decades. Apollo sprayers started in England in 1966 and then later in 1981, under John Darroch, became the first HVLP spray equipment manufacturer in North America.

Sicmo was also the first maker of a true HVLP conversion spray gun. Patented in 1971 by its inventor Mr. Farnsteiner, this spray gun was, and still is, the most air-efficient conversion spray gun. Unlike all other conversion spray guns on the market today, the Sicmo does not rely solely on ‘restriction’ to lower pressure. In addition to restriction, the Sicmo uses a unique air-entraining venturi to actually increase the volume of air passing through the gun. When broken down, the venturi mechanism itself comprises over 20 different parts - this could be considered by some to be a drawback to the device.

A few HVLP makers have disappeared over the years. Some of these names include Sprayfine, Amspray, Capspray, Titan and Croix. Amspray, Capspray and Titan are now associated with Wagner. Croix is a part of Graco.