Keywords
Citation
(1998), "Boeing to supply environmentally safe paint removal system to US Navy", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 27 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1998.12927caf.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Boeing to supply environmentally safe paint removal system to US Navy
Boeing to supply environmentally safe paint removal system to US Navy
Keywords Aircraft, Boeing, Environmentally friendly, Paint stripper
The Boeing Company has received a contract from the US Navy for its FLASHJET coatings removal system, a production version of its environmentally safe paint stripping system.
The FLASHJET system, which is stated to be capable of stripping coatings from various fighter-sized aircraft, will be used to strip T-45A Goshawk trainers based in Kingsville, Texas. The system claims the flexibility to strip paint from virtually any aircraft or component that fits inside its robotic gantry system.
"The FLASHJET system offers the US Navy a variety of advantages, including lower costs for removing coatings from both metal and composite surfaces," said Jim Restelli, Boeing vice president and general manager of Aerospace Support for McDonnell Aircraft and Missile Systems. "FLASHJET also meets current and expected environmental compliance regulations, all while offering better worker safety and health protection," he said.
The US Navy awarded the contract for the FLASHJET system for use on T-45A training aircraft following a competitive procurement for a commercially available coatings removal system. The T-45A FLASHJET system will be operational by mid-1998.
FLASHJET is a patented process that combines pulsed light energy and a steady stream of dry ice pellets to remove up to four square feet of paint per minute for less than $4 a square foot. The cost is less than one-third the cost of manual removal, and one-sixth the cost of chemical stripping. The FLASHJET system produces 99 percent less waste than either the manual or chemical stripping process. The waste that is produced is immediately vacuumed into a filter capture system, eliminating surface cleanup time.
The FLASHJET process has been tested and reportedly verified to be safe for all types of metallic and composite materials, including fibreglass, kevlar and boron/graphite epoxy based components.
Recently, the US Navy formally approved the use of FLASHJET on metallic fixed-wing aircraft, and is expected to approve its use on composite fixed-wing aircraft surfaces by the end of 1997. The Boeing Company also is under contract to provide a FLASHJET system that will be integrated into a prototype mobile system designed to strip P-3C Orion anti-submarine patrol aircraft based in Jacksonville, Florida. That system will be in place next year.
Boeing currently operates a similar FLASHJET system at its helicopter facility in Mesa, Arizona. This system has been operating since May 1996, and is currently used to strip paint from US Army AH-64A Apache helicopters that are being remanufactured into AH-64D Apache Longbows.
The Boeing Company has also been awarded a contract from Singapore Technologies Aerospace-Engineering (STAe) for a mobile FLASHJET system capable of stripping coatings from transport aircraft as large as a Boeing 747-400. STAe will use the mobile FLASHJET system to strip Singapore Air Force and US Marine Corps C-130s, as well as other aircraft.
Details from The Boeing Company, USA. Tel: +1 314 233 0628.