Aircraft Fuselage Cleaning with Laser
Coating removed from aircraft fuselage
Summary
An aircraft manufacturing plant in the UK accidentally double coated a section of 12 new aircrafts in a special aviation paint that they could not remove. The accident was delaying their production schedule, effecting cash flow and negatively impacting on their customer relationships.
Challenge
- Aircraft throughout the world are covered in corrosion proof paint products designed to protect the aircraft material during flight.
- By its nature these coatings are difficult to remove and most removal methods use chemical stripping or blast media and are used on 95% of the aircraft surface area.
- The double coating of paint applied in this case made the challenge of standard paint removal doubly difficult.
Solution
- Using a revolutionary laser cleaning system Tube Tech International was able to quickly and effectively remove the two coats of aircraft paint.
- Laser energy has minimal impact on a substrate and leaves no residue behind.
- Tube Tech’s mobile laser cleaning systems along with trained operatives can access parts of the aircraft often missed by traditional cleaning methods.
- As the most environmentally friendly form of cleaning, the laser can be adapted to many different kinds industry on a multitude of contaminants and substrates. Laser works by ablation – the aircraft paint is removed as it absorbs the focused laser light “ leaving the delicate substrate of the aircraft unaffected.
Tube Tech Comment:
Mike Watson, Technical and Managing Director: “Our client was pleased with the speed and the success of the laser cleaning service. It meant the manufacturing plant could get their production back on line and restore the confidence of their valuable customers. The use of laser cleaning is becoming increasingly popular within the aircraft industry and Tube Tech’s advanced laser cleaning system, up to 4 times faster than any other available worldwide, is ideally suited to aircraft requirements”.
Clients can be contacted via Tube Tech for references.
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