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New paint booths improve safety, speed up work

  • Published
  • By Tommie Horton
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

Three newly installed paint booths at a 571st Commodities Maintenance Group paint/depaint facility have helped the organization to drastically reduce production times, work hazards, health hazards and environmental impact simultaneously.

The paint booths are enclosed structures used for painting large assets from various military aircraft. The temperature-controlled enclosures allow paint to be applied to surfaces at the ideal temperature. Once painting is complete, the temperatures inside the booths are raised to force curing of the applied paint.

The force cure process on average cuts production time in half. For some workloads, production time has gone from three days down to only one.

“We’re very pleased to have incorporated a process that enables us to return assets to our mission partners faster,” said Kenneth Jones, 571st CMXG paint/depaint supervisor.  

The booths are equipped with an air flow and filtering system that draws paint away from the painter during spraying, greatly cutting risk of exposure to the painter.

“Our personnel really appreciate that the closed booths also prevent paint from airing outside to other workers in the shop,” said Jones.

The air pulled from the booths goes through a three-stage filtering process before being released into the atmosphere, minimizing impact to the environment. Proper functioning of the filtering system is monitored by an electronic control panel and analog gauges on the unit’s exterior.

The brightly illuminated interiors further improve work safety by rendering the worker better able to see and avoid trip hazards. The largest of the three booths is 50-feet deep by 30-feet wide and will eventually be outfitted with robotic lifting devices to aid in maneuvering heavy assets.

The first booth began operation in October.