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Contact:
Dave Phillips |
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Contact:
Dave Phillips |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
97-137
PARIS, June 16, 1997 -- McDonnell Douglas announced today that it is providing Singapore Technologies Aerospace (STAe) with a Mobile FLASHJET® Coatings Removal System, the latest version of its effective, economical and environmentally safe paint stripping system for aircraft.
The mobile FLASHJET system, which is capable of stripping coatings from transport aircraft as large as a Boeing 747-400, will be used by STAe to strip C-130 and other aircraft.
The state-of-the-art FLASHJET system will provide STAe with a variety of advantages, including low recurring costs for removing coatings, compliance with current and emerging environmental compliance regulations, and worker safety and health.
By using a combination of pulsed light energy and a steady stream of dry ice pellets, the FLASHJET process can remove up to four-square-feet of paint per minute for less than $4 a square foot. The amount of waste produced is 99 percent less than that of media blast and chemical stripping processes. And because the waste is immediately vacuumed into a filter capture system, surface cleanup time is eliminated.
The FLASHJET process has been tested and verified to be safe for all types of metallic and composite substrates, including fiberglass, kevlar, and boron/graphite epoxy based components. It can be used for high rate stripping of aircraft components, tactical aircraft and transport aircraft.
McDonnell Douglas currently operates a robotic FLASHJET system at its helicopter division in Mesa, Ariz. This system has been operating since May 1996, and is currently used to strip paint from U. S. Army AH-64A Apache helicopters as part of the process of remanufacturing them into AH-64D Longbows.
The FLASHJET process has also been subjected to extensive qualification testing by the U. S. Navy and U. S. Air Force and approved for all types of aircraft substrates. McDonnell Douglas also extensively tested the process and approved it for use on its commercial transports, which the Federal Aviation Administration also approved.