May 15 2010
Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) hosted a press conference today at its Environmental Technology Facility in Johnstown, PA to showcase its efforts in designing an environmentally friendly system to remove coatings from U.S. Air Force aircraft.
Complete depainting of aircraft is performed as part of the normal maintenance process. Presently, existing paint is removed with abrasive dry media or chemical paint removers. Conventional chemical paint removal processes utilize chemicals containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Both processes result in large amounts of solid waste, hazardous waste, and air emissions.
In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of conventional depainting operations and to increase aircraft availability, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) issued a task order to CTC to design, demonstrate, and validate a robotic laser coating removal system capable of removing coatings from the aircraft. This project is the first funded task under a five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that was awarded to CTC by AFRL. After successfully demonstrating this new technology on a deactivated aircraft, the robotic system will be transitioned to Ogden Air Logistics Center (OO-ALC) for production usage. The project team for this program includes representatives from the AFRL Environment and Energy Program Office (AFRL/RXSC) and the OO-ALC 309th Aircraft Maintenance Group Engineering Division (AMXG/EN). The robotics being used for this project are scalable for use on aircraft from fighter size, to the larger cargo and tanker aircraft.
"This project will utilize the most recent advancements in laser technology, process control, and robotic manipulation to provide a state of the art coating removal system," said Mr. Edward J. Sheehan, Jr., CTC's President & Chief Executive Officer. "It will provide innovation to not only the U.S. Air Force but to the entire Department of Defense (DoD) through the development and implementation of an environmentally friendly paint stripping system that can be utilized on a variety of aircraft. We are pleased to be able to expedite the transition of this innovative technology by conducting this testing in our Johnstown, PA facility."
The system that is being engineered will consist of a commercially available laser source, scanner, and particle capture system that will be mounted to and integrated with a mobile robotic base and surface monitoring sensors. Activities in progress include performance testing at CTC on the laser source and a design of an autonomous robot base by Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC).
The benefits of this new system include the reduction of plastic media, paint stripping chemicals, hazardous waste, air emissions, spent personal protective equipment, masking materials, and maintenance costs that are associated with aircraft depainting.
Source: http://www.ctc.com/