News
Aerowave® makes water based paints for Aerospace a reality - 25/09/06
Pexa Ltd has launched the ANAC Aerowave® water based primer and topcoat system with great success at several UK aerospace manufacturing sites. These products are the most advanced water based coatings currently available in the aerospace industry. The products include Aerowave® Primers 222P01 (approved by Bombardier Aerospace and 222P03 (authorised for use by Airbus UK).
This product range will be developed over the coming years with new product releases based on advancement of the technology. The profile for the product is based on the very demanding requirements of aerospace material specifications. These include long term corrosion protection, flexibility at extreme temperatures and resistance to immersion in a wide range of aggressive fluids.
High solids coatings such as ANAC's primer 37092 are already the preferred method of most aerospace manufacturers, as they comply with the UK EPA PG6-40 "compliant coatings" schedule. However the new 2004 issue of this regulation now embodies the EU Solvent Emission Directive 1999/13 requirements, which are for a "whole process" mass balance approach where individual coatings do not have compliant VOC limits and the principle is to reduce as much as possible the total VOC input.
In order to make progressively more and more progress on reductions, water based materials represent the best future, as the technology will allow for later generations of product with progressively lower VOC content towards an end goal of zero.
A key development requirement was to reduce the total cost of ownership of the product, both for the applicator and the eventual owner of the aircraft. This includes reducing the density to enjoy a lower weight and therefore fuel consumption, along with a range of improvements to the application characteristics to speed up process times, reduce energy use, material consumption and waste.
"We have found numerous key advantages to Aerowave®, in addition to it being the most environmentally friendly aerospace structural primer system." says Pexa's Jim Rowbotham.
"As the solids content is similar to that of a conventional solids primer, a controlled layer thickness of 15µ can be applied even over the most complex structures. That said, hiding power is excellent and we have full coverage even over alocromed rivet heads and sharp edges at about that thickness. Reject rates therefore are significantly reduced."
"Admixed potlife is much longer than with high solids products and that means that pressure pot systems can be used, with a low investment compared to plural component spray systems".
"There is a significantly lower chromate content than with other systems and the use of the product for touch up applications seems to be a big plus as high solids systems are not preferred by customers for this, due to the potential for skin irritation with some products."
"We have also found that curing of the paint system can be accelerated by simple air movement as much as by heat, which cuts energy bills. We supply a venturi nozzle based drying system which can be placed next to painted parts to speed up drying at room temperature. Use of the new Anest Iwata W400 WB spray gun, which we distribute, has also shown some impressive results, the specially designed fluid tip causes rapid and efficient droplet formation with very low air energy required, (patented "Pre-atomisation" technology). We have sprayed complex parts at a low air pressure of just 1 bar with perfect results and a quiet working environment with very little overspray or bounce back".
Product demonstrations are available at the ANAC Aerospace Training Centre in Leicester or at customer sites.