Some Eco-Friendly Aircraft Paint Stripper Formulas

Aircrafts are an essential part of the defense forces of a nation and are essential for the safety and security of the country. Thus, there is a dire need to look after them efficiently.

The basic maintenance of an aircraft includes paint stripping and recoating as they both are essential to enhance the life of the aircraft. Painting and recoating saves the aircraft from corrosion.

Earlier, enamels and acrylics were used to strip off the paint from an aircraft but they were very tough to remove. The toxic and hazardous aircraft paint removers were used to remove the paints. Later, it was found that these aircraft paint removers were the major source of waste generation. This forced the U.S government to bar the use of toxic aircraft paint removers.

The government directions made it inevitable to device new aircraft paint remover mediums. Owing to the stringent centralized ecological conventions, many toxic chemical paint removers were debarred. This compelled the aerospace industry to find out some other up-to-the-minute and environment friendly ways of aircraft paint removal.

Before choosing the aircraft paint remover, the prime concern is that the metal or the composite may not loose its properties. Out of the various ways available, Flashjet is a well known aircraft paint removal process that helps reduce the toxic waste significantly. It can be used for both, the primers and the composites. It is also reported that this method does not harm the mechanical properties of slender aluminum alloys or the epoxy materials used in the manufacturing of the navy aircrafts.

With the change in technology, there are now coming various new and eco-friendly ways to strip off aircraft paint. One of the eco-friendly and valuable mediums of aircraft paint removal is the compressed-air-blasting medium which is based on engineered wheat starch. It is a gentle mode of stripping the paint off the aircraft and the various other components of aerospace.

CAE Electronics Ltd, an aviation-simulation-systems company, is running a big business and selling millions of pounds of EnviroStrip blasting material every year. It also deals in supplying semi-automated and manually operated stripping systems which could be used in rooms and blast booths.

Another method that is used to remove paint off an aircraft is EnviroStrip. This method makes use of matrix of the starch polymer which is engineered to give a required hardness so as to reduce the impact of the induced stress which can be the outcome of the blasting. The work can be accomplished at maintenance workhouses and aircraft hangars without any danger as EnviroStrip is a dry medium which facilitates easy aircraft paint removal. The starch medium used for this purpose is non toxic and ecological in nature.

This starch- medium blasting is found to be equally useful for composites and aluminum. It is stated that this medium can safely remove the coatings of the aircraft paint without causing any damage to the surface. Also, it can simultaneously strip off the coatings of primer and paint proficiently. This strip can be recycled for about 10 times and in some exceptional cases it is reported to be used for 15 to 22 times. Thus, it is also a very cost effective method.
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