Before you purchase any striping machine, you first need to figure out if you are going be painting your fields with bulk paint or aerosol paint. If you’re not sure, visit our natural turf paintor synthetic turf paint sections to help you find what matches your needs.
If you are going to be using bulk paint, you have the option of either an airless striping machine or a low pressure striping machine. Aerosol paints have a few options as well. You can find more specifics on each of these below.
What is an Airless Striping Machine?
Airless striping machines can be used on both natural grass and synthetic turf. These striping machines utilize high pressure to atomize the paint as it’s sprayed out. This allows the paint to fully encapsulate the turf blade – providing an even coat. When painting synthetic turf, this also minimizes paint going into the infill. Additionally, airless stripers use less paint. When painting synthetic turf, less paint is better. Many airless machines have a dial that allows you to choose how much pressure you want to use. When using an airless machine, it’s common to set the dial anywhere from 800-100 psi. Pioneer sells numerous airless striping machines, including a self-propelled model.
What is a Low Pressure Striping Machine?
Low pressure machines apply field marking paint at approximately 45 psi. We recommend that low pressure machines only be used on natural grass athletic fields. There are a few different varieties of low pressure field stripers. Some models require you to pour your paint into a holding tank that is then pressurized by a canister of CO2. Other versions using the same holding tank utilize a pump that draws the paint out. There are also low pressure striping machines that draw paint directly from the bucket we send your paint in. Finally, Pioneer offers a unique low pressure machine – our StarLiner – that utilizes plug-and-stripe technology. Boxes of our StarLine paint are attached to the machine and the paint is drawn out by a pump
What do I use for aerosol paints?
Aerosol paints can be applied using a handful of methods. The most simple, but not necessarily the most comfortable, is simply spraying by hand. There are also three different tools that can help make using aerosol paints more manageable. The first is an aerosol can gun, a foot long apparatus that secures the can and uses a trigger system to make spraying the can easy. This tool works well when you are painting logos. The second is an aerosol marking stick, a 2.5’ stick that also secures the can and uses a trigger system. The marking stick can be used for both lines and logos. Finally, there are aerosol marking machines. These four-wheeled devices carry up to 12 cans of aerosol paint. The aerosol marking machines give you the most control when you are marking lines on an athletic field. Pioneer sells each of these aerosol marking tools in two different sizes to correspond with our two different aerosol can sizes – standard and jumbo.